The Pope is "fine" and in a "conscious" state after the operation for a hernia in the stomach

ROMA, 7 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The surgeon who operated on the Pope, Dr. Sergio Alfieri, has assured that Francis is "fine" and in a "conscious" state after undergoing surgery in which they successfully restored an incarcerated incisional hernia that caused subocclusive syndromes in the stomach.

"First of all, the Pope is fine and is awake. This, I think, is the news that all of you and the whole world are waiting for. He is awake and ten minutes ago he even teased me," Alfieri said at a press conference from the Gemelli Hospital in Rome, where Francis is hospitalized.

As soon as he woke up from general anesthesia, the Pope joked with the doctor, who also operated on him in 2021 for a severe diverticular stenosis in the colon, asking him: "When is the third (operation)?"

During the operation -in which a team of 4 surgeons, 5 anesthetists participated and which was carried out under the supervision of 2 other surgical doctors- the abdominal wall hernia was treated by means of plastic surgery with the help of a "prosthetic mesh"

"The Holy Father reacted well to the intervention," he summarized. On the other hand, Alfieri explained that the abdominal hernia occurred in a "scar from previous laparotomic interventions performed in past years." "This laparocele had been causing the Holy Father a painful subocclusive intestinal syndrome for several months," he detailed, without specifying the date when these pains began.

During the surgical intervention, "stubborn adhesions" were also found in some parts of the "intestine and parietal peritoneum" that caused the aforementioned symptoms.

Alfieri has also made it clear that the postoperative phase will not leave any sequelae for the pontiff, who will be able to resume his activity without any limitations. Likewise, he has stressed that he does not have other diseases.

Francis was admitted to the Policlinico Gemelli hospital in Rome this Wednesday afternoon where he will remain for a few days until his complete recovery in the room on the tenth floor of the so-called "Floor of the Popes" where he was already two years ago when he underwent surgery with signs of diverticulitis. sclerosing. It is the same place where John Paul II was hospitalized on several occasions.