Pope Francis still fighting pneumonia after a week in hospital

Pope Francis marked the one-week point Friday in his hospital stay, getting up to eat breakfast as the 88-year-old pontiff continued fighting pneumonia and a complex respiratory infection, the Vatican said.

The Vatican late Thursday reported a “slight improvement” in his overall clinical condition, with his heart working well. But it will still take some time to understand if the various drug therapies are working, and outside doctors have said that regardless, recovery from pneumonia in such a fragile patient could take up to two weeks.

According to the one-line morning bulletin Friday: “The night went well, this morning Pope Francis got up and had breakfast”.

Francis was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital on February 14 after a case of bronchitis worsened; doctors later diagnosed a complex respiratory infection, involving bacteria, virus and other organisms and the onset of pneumonia in both lungs on top of asthmatic bronchitis. They prescribed “absolute rest”.

On Thursday, some of Francis’ cardinals began responding to the obvious question circulating: whether Francis might resign if he becomes irreversibly sick and unable to carry on. Francis has said he would consider it, after Pope Benedict “opened the door” to popes retiring.

“Everything is possible,” said Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, the archbishop of Marseille, France.