Text 421, 189 rader
Skriven 2005-04-01 13:52:27 av Marc Lewis (1:396/45.1)
Ärende: More on the Pope.
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Hello All.

From the Associated Press:

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Apr 1, 2:26 PM (ET)

By VICTOR L. SIMPSON

VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope John Paul II was clinging to life Friday
as his condition deteriorated further, and the Vatican said his
breathing was shallow and his kidneys were failing after
complications from a urinary tract infection. Millions of faithful
around the world prayed for the fading life of the pontiff.

In St. Peter's Square, tens of thousands prayed into the night for
the 84-year-old pontiff, with many tearfully gazing up at his
third-floor window.

"This evening or this night, Christ opens the door to the pope,"
Angelo Comastri, the pope's vicar general for Vatican City, told
the crowd.

Earlier, the Vatican said John Paul's general condition has
"further worsened."

The pope was taking part in the prayers of aides who had gathered
at his bedside, spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said. The pope
declined to be hospitalized.

He said the pope's "breathing has become shallow" and his overall
health had become "compromised."

"The shallow breathing is totally consistent with severe failure of
the blood vessels to provide blood to all the key organs," said Dr.
Peter Salgo, associate director of the intensive care unit at New
York Presbyterian/Columbia University Medical Center. "Eventually
you run out of reserve."

In Washington, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick said he had heard from
Rome that the pope is "sinking," and that he was praying that God
will "take him peacefully."

People in Wadowice, Poland, left school and work early and headed
to church to pray for their native son.

In the Philippines, tears streamed down the face of Linda Nicol as
she and her husband asked God to grant John Paul "a longer life."
Muslims in France were praying for the pontiff because he was a
"man of peace," said Dalil Boubakeur, president of the French
Council of the Muslim Faith.

At the Church of the Assumption in Lagos, sub-Saharan Africa's most
populous city of over 13 million, about 200 Nigerians in Western
clothes and bright traditional African robes sat on wooden benches,
offering prayers at a midday Mass for the pope's recovery.

The White House said President Bush and his wife were praying for
the pope and that the world's concern was "a testimony to his
greatness."

"The pope's faith is so strong and full and the experience of God
so intensively lived that he, in these hours of sufferance ...
already sees and already touches Christ," Cardinal Camillo Ruini,
the pope's vicar for Rome, told hundreds who packed a Rome
basilica Friday evening for a special Mass for the pontiff.

A "fully conscious and extraordinarily serene" John Paul had
participated in Mass and received some top aides in the morning,
Navarro-Valls said.

The critically ill pope appointed a large number of bishops and
other church officials, the Holy See said in an afternoon
statement.

Among the top church officials who gathered at his bedside was
Archbishop Paolo Sardi, the Vatican vice chamberlain. The
chamberlain runs the Holy See between the death of a pope and the
election of a new one.

Another visitor was Cardinal Edmund Szoka, the governor of Vatican
City and former archbishop of Detroit, who said the pope was being
given oxygen.

"And I don't know how long he can continue with that. They were
giving him oxygen and all that sort of thing, helping him," Szoka
said.

Cardinal Marcio Francesco Pompedda, a high-ranking Vatican
administrator, visited the pope Friday and said he opened his eyes
and smiled.

"I understood he recognized me. It was a wonderful smile - I'll
remember it forever. It was a benevolent smile - a father-like
smile," Pompedda told RAI television. "I also noticed that he
wanted to tell me something but he could not. ... But what
impressed me very much was his expression of serenity."

Navarro-Valls said John Paul asked aides to read him the liturgy of
the Third Hour - the biblical passage describing the final stage
of the Way of the Cross, the path that Christ took to his
Crucifixion. In that stage, according to the Bible, Christ's body
was taken down from the cross, wrapped in a linen shroud and
placed in his tomb.

Navarro-Valls said the pope followed attentively and made the sign
of the cross.

"This is surely an image I have never seen in these 26 years,"
Navarro-Valls said. Choking up, he walked out of the room.

John Paul's health declined sharply Thursday when he developed a
high fever brought on by the infection. The pope suffered septic
shock and heart problems during treatment for the infection, the
Vatican said, denying an Italian news report that he was in a coma.

Septic shock involves both bacteria in the blood and a consequent
over-relaxing of the blood vessels. The vessels, which are
normally narrow and taught, get floppy in reaction to the bacteria
and can't sustain any pressure. That loss of blood pressure is
catastrophic, making the heart try harder and harder to compensate
for the collapse.

"The chances of an elderly person in this condition with septic
shock surviving 24 to 48 hours are slim - about 10-20 percent, but
that would be in an intensive care unit with very aggressive
treatment," said Dr. Gianni Angelini, a professor of cardiac
surgery at Bristol University in England.

The pope received the sacrament for the sick and dying on Thursday
evening. Formerly called the last rites, the sacrament is often
misunderstood as signaling imminent death. It is performed both
for patients at the point of death and for those who are very sick
- and it may be repeated.

The Rome daily La Repubblica reported Friday that the sacrament was
administered by his closest aide, Polish Archbishop Stanislaw
Dziwisz, who serves as his private secretary. Dziwisz had given
the pontiff the same sacrament Feb. 24 just before the pope
underwent a tracheotomy to insert a breathing tube in his throat
at the Gemelli Polyclinic, the newspaper said.

Among those John Paul received were Secretary of State Cardinal
Angelo Sodano, the Vatican's No. 2 official; Undersecretary of
State Archbishop Leonardo Sandri; his doctrinal chief, Cardinal
Joseph Ratzinger; and the Vatican foreign minister, Archbishop
Giovanni Lajolo.

The pontiff was treated by the Vatican medical team and provided
with "all the appropriate therapeutic provisions and cardio-
respiratory assistance," the Holy See said. It said the pope was
being helped by his personal doctor, two intensive care doctors, a
cardiologist, an ear, nose and throat specialist and two nurses.

Dr. Peter Weissberg of the British Heart Foundation said septic
shock "puts a phenomenal strain on the heart."

"Those already suffering from heart disease - including those with
heart failure - are even more susceptible to septic shock," he
said. "Infection triggers a profound loss of blood pressure,
depriving organs around the body of their vital blood supply and
putting an enormous strain on the heart."

Even the fittest patients need special care and medicine to survive,
he said.

Hospitalized twice last month following two breathing crises, and
fitted with a breathing tube and a feeding tube, John Paul has
become a picture of suffering.

His 26-year papacy has been marked by its call to value the aged
and to respect the sick, subjects the pope has turned to as he
battles Parkinson's disease and crippling knee and hip ailments.

It is not clear who would be empowered to make medical decisions
for an unconscious pope. The Vatican has officially declined to
comment whether John Paul has left written instructions.
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AP Medical Writer Emma Ross in Rome contributed to this story.

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Best regards,
Marc

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