OAN Staff Blake Wolf
10:23 AM – Tuesday, March 11, 2025
On Monday, doctors announced that Pope Francis, after a nearly month-long battle with pneumonia that required hospitalization, is no longer at imminent risk of death.
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“The improvements recorded in previous days have further consolidated, as confirmed by both blood tests and clinical objectivity and the good response to pharmacological therapy. For these reasons, the doctors decided to lift the prognosis,” stated the Vatican’s press office.
88-year-old Francis will continue to remain in a “hospital environment” for additional days due to the “complexity of the clinical picture and the important infectious picture presented no admission.”
The pope, who has a chronic lung disease, was hospitalized last month after contracting a bad case of bronchitis. The infection compounded into a complex respiratory tract infection and double pneumonia, which left him in critical condition.
As a positive sign of Francis’s improved health, he engaged in the Vatican’s week-long spiritual retreat on Monday via a video call.
The Vatican revealed that Francis will be moved back to a noninvasive mechanical ventilation while continuing to take antibiotic medication.
Francis released his weekly address on Sunday, thanking the hospital staffers for caring for him.
“During my prolonged hospitalization here, I too experience the thoughtfulness of service and the tenderness of care, in particular from the doctors and health care workers, whom I thank from the bottom of my heart,” the pope stated.
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