Author: Jimmy Akin
Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live." View all posts by Jimmy Akin
They’re lying through their teeth. As my mom (former trauma nurse, now in charge of an intermediate care unit) emailed me this morning:
“On the news this am the broadcaster actually stated, “according to the Vatican, the Pope slept well and enjoyed his breakfast”. Uh no…. the Pope has a trach and is on a ventilator. I seriously doubt he “slept well” unless he was highly medicated. A person with a fresh trach does not “eat” and certainly would not eat while on a ventilator.
Once he is off the ventilator they may do “swallowing trials” with a barium solution and video x-rays to see if he can swallow safely but that won’t happen right away with his inflamed vocal cords and trachea.”
Just as a reminder that the fight never ends, I thought I’d pass along this little tidbit from Fr. Bryce’s Saintly Salmagundi about the never-ending cultural assault on Catholicism.
http://www.catholicleague.org/05press_releases/quarter%201/050224_nbctv.htm
Don’t let all of these nice stories about the Pope fool you; the networks are still disgustingly anti-Catholic.
I am truly uneducated about such matters, but from the news reports, the indication was that he was NOT on a ventilator. The seemed to clearly state that he was breathing on his own. They also differentiated between an emergency trach and the ‘elective’ type JPII underwent. Is it possible that as a trauma nurse, your mother might be under the impression he received an emergency trach? Again, not trying to debate this (in no position to), just relaying the statements in the article and asking questions.
My local news show was sensationalizing the story acting as if the Catholic Church was being brought down to its knees in chaos without a healthy young pope to run things. They couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t retire and were subtly implying that Pope John Paul II was being an arrogant egotist for not nobly stepping down. They were speculating that the Vatican must be drawing up emergency pope replacement plans to save itself from imminent destruction.
They don’t understand that the Catholic Church is like a massive ark with quite a bit of inertia to keep in going in the right direction during the stormy times. It’s not like a country or coporation that really would lapse into chaos without a head. Cardinal Ratzinger or any other number of cardinals could hold down the fort for any number of years. We don’t need another pope to teach us for a while, we only need to listen to the teachings this one has already given to us, and he continues to teach us even without the ability to speak.
Its like they were born yesterday or something.
I personally get a kick out of the media’s coverage of this.
Steve:
An “elective” trach (like any other elective procedure) is prescheduled days to weeks in advance. An elective trach is not an emergency admission with the procedure being performed within a few hours. The Pope probably was able to understand the need for the procedure and consented rather than having it performed without his knowledge or consent. An informed consent does not make the proecedure elective however.
One of the biggest issues with long term Parkinson’s disease is the ability to swallow safely due to tremor and weakened throat and chest muscles. It would be highly likely that as the Pope recovered from his previous admission, he was having difficulty swallowing and small amounts of food and/or fluids were being inhaled into the lung…. a perfect set up for an aspiration pneumonia.
If the trach was truly performed for severe edema and inflammation of the trachea and vocal cords, then the Pope would certainly NOT be swallowing regular food and fluids and “eating a hearty breakfast” as claimed. An ice chip perhaps, but not a meal or even a liquid meal.
Yes, it is possible to eat with a trach and there are various valves and types of trachs that allow speech. All would be highly unusual events less than 24 hours after a fresh trach for the edema and inflammation that were initially reported.
The above was all written by my mom.