VATICAN CITY: PEOPLE GATHER IN ST PETER'S SQUARE AS POPE JOHN PAUL II FIGHTS AGAINST HIGH FEVER AND INFECTION
Record ID:
646822
VATICAN CITY: PEOPLE GATHER IN ST PETER'S SQUARE AS POPE JOHN PAUL II FIGHTS AGAINST HIGH FEVER AND INFECTION
- Title: VATICAN CITY: PEOPLE GATHER IN ST PETER'S SQUARE AS POPE JOHN PAUL II FIGHTS AGAINST HIGH FEVER AND INFECTION
- Date: 1st April 2005
- Summary: (BN17) VATICAN CITY (APRIL 1, 2005) (REUTERS) (NIGHTSHOTS) 1. WIDE OF ST PETER'S SQUARE 0.07 2. CU: CANDLE 0.12 3. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE HOLDING CANDLES (2 SHOTS) 0.29 4. PAN: SECURITY IN VATICAN SQUARE 0.34 5. CU: WINDOW OF POPE'S APARTMENT 0.38 6. WIDE OF ST PETER'S SQUARE 0.42 7. CU: DOME OF ST PETER'S 0.46 8. VARIOUS OF WORKERS PLACING METAL BARRIERS ON THE STREETS NEAR THE VATICAN (4 SHOTS) 1.22 9. MV: ENTRANCE INTO VATICAN CITY PATROLLED BY POLICE 1.32 10. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE PRAYING (4 SHOTS) 2.06 11. POLICE CARS 2.14 12. (SOUNDBITE) (English) MARCO POLITI, VATICAN ANALYST FOR ITALIAN DAILY NEWSPAPER LA REPUBBLICA, SAYING: "This is the most dramatic moment of the last weeks. The Pope is in agony, they gave him the Last Rites. Doctors are struggling to stabilise his situation. He has a very high fever and low (blood) pressure. Now, everybody is waiting to see what will happen tomorrow morning." 2.44 (BN17) ROME, ITALY (APRIL 1, 2005) (REUTERS) 13. REUTERS CORRESPONDENT AND VATICAN ANALYST, PHILIP PULLELLA AT HIS DESK 2.52 14. (SOUNDBITE) (English) PULLELLA, SAYING: "Well I don't think it's fair to say right now that the Pope is dying. I think it would probably be fairest to say that he is closest to death that he has been since he was shot in 1981 in the assassination attempt when he was hit by several bullets fired by a Turkish terrorist and had to undergo five hours of surgery in a Rome hospital to save his life. He's had brushes with death since then but they have never been as serious as the assassination attempt was then and this illness is now. He's been in hospital several times but most of them were for planned surgeries and even when he had an operation to remove a tumour which was beginning to turn cancerous in his colon, even then it wasn't a life threatening situation. So we understand that it's a life threatening situation now, not so much because of the urinary infection but because the urinary infection comes on top of everything else and his body is just already so much weakened, already. Everybody's hoping that he'll pull out of this but the situation looks pretty grim." 4.08 (BN17) VATICAN CITY (APRIL 1, 2005) (REUTERS) 15. VARIOUS OF PEOPLE GATHERED IN VATICAN SQUARE (2 SHOTS) 4.17 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 16th April 2005 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: VATICAN CITY AND ROME, ITALY
- Reuters ID: LVA4F4IL14YTPV7AX2G5U51NW5T1
- Story Text: People gather in the Vatican as suffering Pope
fights high fever,infection.
A frail and pained Pope John Paul was battling on
Friday (April 1) against a fever and urinary infection,
raising fears around the Roman Catholic world that his
historic papacy might be nearing an end.
Italian media said the 84-year-old Pontiff had received
the sacrament for the sick and dying commonly known as the
Last Rites. It is given to the very seriously ill but does
not necessarily mean death is imminent.
As dawn approached on Friday, a Polish priest at the
Vatican said the Pontiff's health was stabilising thanks to
antibiotics administered to tame the potentially lethal
infection.
Medical sources said the next 24 hours could prove
crucial, adding that his condition was precarious.
"He's ill, very ill," an unnamed medical source was quoted
as saying by Italy's Ansa news agency on Friday.
The Pope, who is struggling to recover from throat
surgery and has been sick for most of the past two months,
was not taken to hospital despite the gravity of the
situation. One media report said he was too frail to be
moved.
Doctors stayed at the Pontiff's bedside into the early
hours of Friday morning as hundreds of faithful gathered in
St Peter's Square to pray for the man who has led the
world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics for the past 26 years.
Father Konrad Hejmo, who is in charge of Polish
pilgrims to the Vatican and has close ties to the Pontiff's
inner circle, told reporters early on Friday that the
treatment was working.
"The Pope's health is stabilising," he said, adding
that the Pontiff had lost some 19 kg (42 lb) following the
Feb. 24 throat surgery, weakening his defences against
infections.
Doctors inserted a feeding tube into the Pope's stomach
on Wednesday (March 30) in an attempt to boost his fading
strength.
Italian media reported that his temperature leapt to
around 40 C (104 F) on Thursday (March 31) afternoon,
bringing doctors rushing to his bedside.
Shortly before reports of the illness broke, Cardinal
Christoph Schoenborn, the Archbishop of Vienna, told the
Austrian news agency APA that the Pope was "approaching, as
far as a person can tell, the end of his life".
Medical experts said the Pope's infection may have
spread to his bloodstream, adding that this could prove
fatal given the fact that he is a long-time sufferer of
Parkinson's disease.
Television stations in John Paul's native Poland
interrupted their normal programming to tell people of the
condition of their most famous native son, a man Poles
credit with helping them shake off communism in 1989.
In Rome, hundreds of people, some with tears in their
eyes, rushed to the Vatican to pray below the Pope's
windows.
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