Pope's partial lung shouldn't affect work

THE new Pope has daunting challenges ahead ranging from the church sex abuse scandal to reinvigorating the flock.

And the 76-year-old Francis will have to do it all with just one whole lung.

The Argentine pontiff underwent surgery as a young man to remove "a good part" of an infected lung, according to his authorised biographer, Sergio Rubin.

"He feels it today," Rubin said. "He's a little bit slowed by it, but he's OK."

Doctors said losing part of a lung doesn't necessarily compromise the Pope's health or reduce his life span, though it means no strenuous exercise since he no longer has as much air capacity as people with two lungs.

"He probably wouldn't be able to run marathons, but I don't think that would be on his schedule," said Dr Peter Openshaw, director of the Centre for Respiratory Infection at Imperial College London.

"Having one lung should be enough as long as there is no other disease in that lung."

Experts said it would be rare nowadays to remove or cut away part of a lung. Antibiotics would be used to treat most lung infections including tuberculosis, though part of the organ might be removed to treat advanced lung cancer.

Back when Francis had part of his lung removed, the available antibiotics weren't as powerful.

"In the past, doctors used to try all kinds of strange things to try to treat lung infections," said Dr Jennifer Quint, a respiratory expert at London's School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

She said physicians even used to stick ping pong balls into peoples' lungs in an attempt to starve the lung of oxygen, to kill the bacteria.

Jeremy Ward, a professor of respiratory physiology at King's College London, said he was only mildly concerned about the Pope's health - unless he gets sick.

"If he gets any sort of infection, it could be much more serious in him than in someone else with two lungs. ... That could make him susceptible to pneumonia, which would be very dangerous for him."

Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang

Pope's partial lung shouldn't affect work

Dengan url

https://tikusinternet.blogspot.com/2013/03/popes-partial-lung-shouldnt-affect-work.html

Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya

Pope's partial lung shouldn't affect work

namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link

Pope's partial lung shouldn't affect work

sebagai sumbernya