The operation that Pope Francis underwent at Rome’s Agostino Gemelli Hospital was completed yesterday.
The pope underwent laparotomy, or open abdominal surgery, and a mesh prosthesis was used to reconstruct the abdominal wall. According to Italian media, this problem arose as a consequence of a previous operation to which the Pope had been subjected two years ago.
Pope Francis is in his private room on the tenth floor of Gemelli, where he is expected to stay for at least two days.
Sergio Alfieri, a surgeon who operated on Pope Francis at Rome’s Agostino Gemelli hospital yesterday, said: “The pope is well, he woke up and he even joked with me.” Alfieri added that the operation removed internal scars in the intestine, which caused pain to Pope Francis and had been caused after a previous operation.
“When will we have the third operation?” he joked with the doctor. Alfieri said there would be no lasting consequences from the operation and said that Francis would stay in hospital from five to seven days. “Give us some time,” he told reporters.
Pope Francis is 86 years old and has undergone four operations. Yesterday’s operation, as it became known, lasted three hours.
