Pope Francis is at the Gemelli Polyclinic. The Pontiff enteredthrough the main entrance, greeted by a small crowd of journalists and onlookers. The Pope's car, with tinted windows, arrived directly into the building from a secondary passage, the same used for the previous hospitalization. She was escorted by some blue cars of the Vatican and also of the Italian police. Now the Pope is on the tenth floor. In the same building is the department of gastroenterology.
Pope Francis, the arrival at Gemelli
The Pontiff at the end of the general audience - said in a communication to journalists the director of the Holy See Press Office, Matteo Bruni - at the Gemelli University Hospital where in the early afternoon he will undergo under general anesthesia a laparotomy and plastic surgery of the abdominal wall with prostheses ". " The operation, arranged in recent days by the medical team that assists the Holy Father, was necessary because of an incarcerated laparocele that is causing recurrent, painful and worsening sub-occlusive syndromes. The stay at the health facility will last several days to allow the normal post-operative course and full functional recovery".
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Laparocele, the hernia from which the Pope suffers
Gastroenterologist: 'It forms on top of a scar'
"You have seen the press release, I believe there are no other words to add. We follow him with our affection - this is how Cardinal Pietro Parolin replied to journalists on the state of the Pope's health - we follow him with our prayers, hoping that everything can be resolved as soon as possible and he returns to the exercise of his ministry". Asked if he is worried, he replied: "I don't know what to say because I have no elements to say either way. It seemed to me that the communiqué tried to say things in a very technical way, which perhaps is not so easy even to understand, but to give the elements that allow us to frame the problem".
The surgeon Alfieri will operate on the Pope, it is the second time.
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As a young man he also underwent lung surgery.
