Pope hospitalized for breathing problems
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-02-02 09:23

Flu-stricken Pope John Paul II was fighting for breath when he was rushed to hospital in an emergency, Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls told reporters.

"The flu which has been affecting the Holy Father for three days was complicated with acute inflammation of the larynx and laryngo-spasm," a condition where one cannot catch one's breath, Navarro-Valls said..

Pope John Paul II was taken to a hospital late on February 1, 2005, Italian media including national news agency ANSA and Sky Italia television said. The pope fell ill with influenza on Sunday and was forced to cancel all his engagements over the past two days. The pope is shown observing a white dove released by children at the Vatican, on January 30, 2005. [Reuters]

"For this reason it was urgently decided that he be taken to the Policlinico Gemelli which happened at 10:50 pm," the spokesman said in a statement released shortly before midnight Tuesday to a throng of reporters outside the Rome hospital.

Laryngo-spasm is a medical term for the closure of the larynx that blocks the passage of air to the lungs. In severe cases, it can require a tracheotomy to be performed.

Navarro-Valls denied speculation early Wednesday that the pontiff, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, had been put on a life-support machine.

"He is not in reanimation," the Ansa news agency quoted him as saying, adding that the 84-year-old pontiff was being cared for by his medical team in a special room on the 10th floor of Rome's Gemelli hospital.

The Vatican statement came after intense speculation over the frail pope's state of health after Ansa reported he had been taken to the hospital outside the Vatican walls "as a precaution".

Dozens of journalists and television crews rushed to the hospital and began a vigil outside the hospital gates as the world's one billion and more Catholics waited for news of their spiritual leader.

As news spread of the serious nature of the pope's condition, they were joined in by a small group of mostly elderly people who live in the neighbourhood of the hospital, who braved the barely above zero temperatures to pray for the pontiff.

The Vatican had early on Tuesday announced the pontiff had cancelled his public engagements for the next few days, blaming the "continuing progression" of his flu and confirmed that he would not hold his normal weekly general audience on Wednesday.

Navarro-Valls said at that stage that he expected to the postponement of the pope's public appearances to be "short-term".

But it is now clear that his condition worsened dramatically in the evening, before he was rushed to hospital.

In recent years, the pope -- who suffers from Parkinson's disease, has been dogged by shortness of breath which has often forced him to leave much of his prepared homilies and speeches to aides to finish for him.

But only rarely does he cancel official engagements for health reasons, despite his frail condition and advanced age.

World political and religious leaders have many times paid tribute to the dignity with which the frail pontiff bears his suffering and it is rare that he misses a public engagement.

The last time he cancelled a public appearance was in September 2003, because of gastric problems which had raised concerns for his health, especially after his visit to Slovakia just a few days previously appeared to have left him exhausted.

He has previously had to cancel public appearances because of flu, which is particularly dangerous for the elderly, in January 1990 and February 1997.

The pope was noticeably hoarse during his regular weekly Angelus address from his apartment window overlooking Saint Peter's Square on Sunday.

He was however well enough on Monday to formally receive the latest edition of the Pontifical yearbook, which reveals the latest statistics regarding vocations in the worldwide Roman Catholic church.

Despite his hoarseness Sunday, the pope appeared in reasonably good form, given his age and infirmity due to a long battle with Parkinson's.

He joked with young children who joined him for the Angelus to help him release a dove, symbolising a message of peace, which was reluctant to fly off from his apartment window.

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