Jo Mckenna: Rome Correspondent on the status of Pope Francis' health

The Pope is in critical condition as he now battles kidney failure. 

On Saturday the Vatican announced he was suffering from a prolonged respiratory crisis, and he has since been receiving constant oxygen.

Rome Correspondent Jo Mckenna joins the show for an update on the Pope's condition. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's get to Rome and see what the Vatican had
to say the last half hour. Joe's weather this morning, Joe,
good morning. Make this doesn't sound good. Some blood tests
initial mild kidney failure. So he's still on the high
flow oxygen. He's still complex. What I mean, are we
feeling hopeful at all or not?

Speaker 2 (00:19):
It doesn't sound very good, does it. He remained in
a what they call a critical condition on Sunday. A
great deal of alarm on Saturday when the Vaticans said
that the Pope had suffered a prolonged respiratory crisis, which
sounds like he couldn't breathe at all. He has been
receiving supplemental oxygen through a tube in the last forty
eight hours. And now they're talking about blood tests showing,

(00:42):
as you said, initial mild kidney malfunction or failure.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
Do they have a prognosis? Do they then go but
or they just leave it at that.

Speaker 2 (00:54):
Well, they say the clinical picture is complex and we
need some drug therapies to provide more feedback. And then
they say our prognosis remains reserved. So they're not saying
too much, but clearly a lot of different things are
going off at once at the same time.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
How many people are speaking on his behalf. You're getting
something from the Vatican and something from the doctors, are
all going through the Vatican or all the doctors all one.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
Well, the doctors brief the Vatican public relations offers and
they issue the statement once the doctors have given them
the words, which are highly technical usually and that can
create a lot of confusion among the journalists. But it
sounds like he's stable, although critical. I think that's the
way we look at it now. He also celebrated mass

(01:42):
inside his apartment today inside the Jameli Hospital in Rome.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Okay, how much concern in Italy in general?

Speaker 2 (01:49):
A great deal of concern. I think a great deal
of concern. People think he's not going to come out
of there, and I think that's certainly not looking very
good because it's been in there for ten days and
all these different parts of his body seem to be reacting. Now.
If he gets sepsis a kind of a blood infection,
that could cause some sort of shutdown in these organs,

(02:11):
and that could just take him out.

Speaker 1 (02:13):
All right, No, we'll stay in touch. Joe appreciate it
very much. Joe McKenna who's in Rome. Listened to the
Vatican the last couple of moments. It seems ironic that
conclave has just come out, doesn't it. I'm still watching
Stanley Tucci on with his Italian cooking show and is
thinking about conclave. And I'm thinking of the car because
we'll go through that whole every time, you know, you
go through and wait for the smoke. They re explain

(02:34):
what's been going on in the Catholic Church for one hundreds,
if not thousands of years and con what's a conclave?
And then we'll go them just smoke whitch, yeah exactly.
So anyway, we'll see what happens in the next couple
of days. For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen
live to news talks.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
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