The Pope leaves hospital with a cast on his right arm. (CNS/Reuters)
Posted on 07/17/2009 1:27:35 PM PDT by NYer
Pope Benedict XVI insisted on waiting his turn behind another patient when he was admitted to the hospital today for an X-ray and operation on his broken right wrist.
The Italian news agency ANSA quoted hospital sources as saying that he let a peritonitis patient awaiting surgery go ahead of him. He spent most of the day in the hospital, but has now been released.
The Pope’s operation under local anesthesia was “a complete success,” reports say, and the Holy Father will return to his summer vacation Alpine retreat. Papal spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said the injury was “nothing serious.”
The Vatican stated earlier that Benedict had broken his wrist last night in a fall in the chalet where he is spending his summer vacation. Until July 29, he is staying in Les Combes in the Alpine region of northern Italy.
The Pope is scheduled on Sunday to recite the Angelus at a parish church in Romano Canavese, a town about 50 miles away from the chalet. Father Lombardi said it was too early to know if that plan would change.
The fracture occurred in his right wrist, so it could prevent him from writing. It had been speculated that the Pope was going to work on the next volume of his book Jesus of Nazareth during his vacation.
However, the Holy Father prefers mostly to dictate his thoughts into a recorder rather than write them down himself, so it’s unlikely to cause too much of a problem. Sadly, though, he probably won’t be able to play the piano for a while — a favorite pastime of his, especially on vacation.
Prayers for the Holy Fathers fast recovery so he can play his beloved piano.
They call having one patient in front of him "waiting"?
I wonder if he'd have felt as charitable if he sat in an Emergency Room crammed full of people shouting in what seems like every language on earth all night long, and many of the loudest getting treatment apparently in direct correlation to how much disruption they cause.
Squeaky wheels get oiled. Oldest trick in the book.
As I was being wheeled in for hand surgery, I asked my surgeon, "Doc, will I be able to play the piano after this?"
He deadpanned, "That depends on if you could play before."
I deadpanned back, "That depends on who you talk to."
. . . my hand is no obstacle to playing the piano, or sewing, or anything else. My lack of skill, on the other hand . . . .
Probably small towns are small towns. Sounds like you are comparing a big-city ER to a small town. I would think you’re not likely to find CEOs and etc. wasting their time in ERs.
The Pope is a Head of State
Can you imagine any of our Presidents waiting for ANYTHING?
Any of our Vice Presidents?
Any of our Senators?
Any of our Congresscritters?
For that matter, could you picture any head of the most insignificant third world country waiting?
The fact that he waited is something that I would doubt any politician would do if he could avoid it?
In fact, let me add one thing: I will bet you that the doctors at the hospital offered, and in fact, probably tried to insist that he go ahead of the other patient (people are remarkably insistent that way) and I would wager that the Pope had to tell them to let the other patient go first.
” wonder if he’d have felt as charitable if he sat in an Emergency Room crammed full of people shouting in what seems like every language on earth all night long...”
Why? He wasn’t and that’s a stretch to raise that strawman.
Or are you speaking of Obamacare - LA ER coming to a city soon.
I’m glad he’s OK...
My point was simply that, even when arriving in the middle of the night, with an injury such as a broken arm I have never had ER care where it was just one person being treated in front of me and then it's my turn.
I’m still lost as to why you even brought that up.
So the Pontiff was seen second. And this is an issue, why?
It just seems to me, and I could very well be wrong, that your thoughts are thinly veiled carping over the Pope’s “turn.”
You do know that Benedict is Head of State, and that popes are sometimes used for target practice by various and sundry malcontents who could take umbrage to his presence while he sits and waits for the triage nurse? Not to mention that 82 year olds with complex compound fractures and various medical conditions are seen quickly in ERs.
In fact, if he was brought in by Ambulance, the protocol here in the US is that that patient is seen PDQ over the waiting room patients.
I trust that the next time you and the Pontiff are in the ER somewhere, he’ll defer to your care before his. In fact, I’m pretty sure he will.
I just love this pope! Jesus Christ has truly blessed our church by giving us this humble man as His vicar!
You're right.
You are wrong.
Then why even make the comment? What is bothering you about this?
Obviously not nearly as much as is bothering you about it.
Sheesh. Enough with the Pope's broken arm, already.
Prayers for Pope Benedict’s complete healing.
Well, yeah. Peritonitis is a critical illness with an extremely high fatality potential. A broken arm can wait.
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