“dyspnea” is normal – Time

“A person who is over 85 years old, who is a little overweight, who is stressed by a thousand commitments and who has had a recent respiratory tract infection can become breathless.” That is, he can experience “a dyspnea that absolutely explains in a fragile patient especially if, like the Pontiff, he cannot afford a normal convalescence”. In the eyes of the doctor “it is not something that should worry or scare, nor even make one think of a more serious illness”. Thus the president of the Italian Society of Pneumology (Sip) Fabiano Di Marco, interviewed by Adnkronos Salute, reassures regarding the conditions of Pope Francis, who did not read the Palm Sunday homily on Sunday.

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The specialist, full professor of diseases of the respiratory system at the State University of Milan and head of Pneumology at the Pope John XXIII Asst of Bergamo, does not want “any diagnosis” attributed to him regarding the Holy Father. The expert limits himself to general considerations on the consequences expected following a respiratory pathology such as the Pope’s “mild flu condition”, which the Vatican Press Office spoke regarding a month ago. In this period “we see a ‘party’ of viruses attacking our patients”, underlines the Sip president. Regardless of the nature of the pathogen that may have affected the pontiff at the time, the premise is that “usually respiratory infections, upper airway infections or lower ones such as bronchitis – explains Di Marco – are extremely benign conditions” which however «they damage the epithelium lining the tracts themselves.

It therefore happens that these infections leave behind a bit of a cough, especially when speaking and especially when you have to do so out loud. This post-infectious cough just requires a little patience, then it heals.” «In the case of a so-called fragile patient, who might be either a person with chronic respiratory disease or, like the pontiff, an elderly and slightly overweight person – continues the pulmonologist – these infectious episodes which for others are trivial can also lead to to fatigue in carrying out daily activities and to shortness of breath, namely dyspnea. It should also be considered – the specialist points out – that usually people of the Pope’s age, following they have a respiratory infection, rest at home and wait to get better. A ‘luxury that the pontiff cannot afford.” So for President Sip – from a medical point of view – there is nothing strange, nor alarming, in Bergoglio’s silences which make headlines.