The Pope's medical team

Two primary doctors and a small team of two trusted Vatican nurses, including Massimiliano Strapppetti, the Pope's personal health assistant, make up the core of the medical staff who assist Pope Francis at the Gemelli Polyclinic after his hospitalization yesterday on the tenth floor.

To these is added Andrea Arcangeli, Director of Health and Hygiene of the Vatican City State. Other specialists are closely involved , such as the radiologists who helped clarify the clinical picture yesterday.

In the same hospital there is another doctor who has already followed the Pontiff for colon surgery, the surgeon Sergio Alfieri, who in the previous hospitalisation had the task of resolving a symptomatic diverticular stenosis of the colon and who can contribute with his experience in evaluating the general health status. Meanwhile, blood and oxygen saturation checks are continuing and intravenous antibiotic and anti-inflammatories therapy continues for a few more days.

The assignment of Strapppetti who always remains close to Pope Francis, had previously always been held exclusively by doctors and his presence continues to demonstrate the importance of this figure in the most delicate moments of the disease. The Pope had dedicated words of great gratitude to him, saying that it was his readiness to save his life and his presence is constant.

The great cardio-respiratory balance and the delicacy of the situation, given the age of the patient, require that the checks take place in parallel on the functionality of the breath and on the heart. The two systems are strongly linked and the fatigue of one affects the other. Professor Luca Richeldi, director of the UOC of Pneumology and Professor of Respiratory Apparatus Diseases, is at the forefront of treating respiratory infection. Richeldi is also known for his commitment during the pandemic within the Scientific Technical Committee (Cts) and was president of the Italian Society of Pulmonology. The cardiological situation is under the control of Professor Filippo Crea, Full Professor of Cardiology at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart and director of the UOC of Cardiology.

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