Pope ‘fully recovered’

Press, 3 August 1981, Page 9

Pope ‘fully recovered’

NZPA-Reuter Rome Pope John Paul has fully recovered from the viral infection he contracted in June, and will shortly undergo more surgery on his injured intestines. A medical bulletin signed by the Pope's nine-man medical team said his recovery from the infection which took him abruptly back to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on June 20 “may now be considered clinically complete.” Tests would be done this week in preparation for the surgery. Professor Emilio Tresalti said the surgery would be performed later this month. It will restore full function to

the Pope’s lower intestines, bypassed during emergency surgery after he was shot in St Peter’s Square on May 13.

About one metre of intestine was removed and a colostomy performed to allow the remainder to recover. The Pope has suffered discomfort and restriction of movement since.

By contrast with the emergency surgery, which lasted six hours and required three litres of blood transfusions, “the second operation should last less than an hour and does not present particular difficulty.” Professor Tresalti said.

“On the psychological and moral level the Pope’s recov-

ery has run ahead of his physical recuperation, which is still not complete,” he said.

The Pope was first released from hospital on June 3, only three weeks after the shooting. But 17 days later the virus, possibly contracted through one of the blood transfusions, showed itself in the form of high fever and lung and liver complications, and the Pope has been in hospital since.

His would-be assassin, a Turkish extremist, Mehmet Ah Agca, aged 23, was sentenced to life imprisonment by a Rome tribunal on July 22.