Let me be the first.Prince albert is in the can.
Posted on 03/25/2005 4:19:03 PM PST by COUNTrecount
Prince Rainier's condition has not improved, royal palace says
Prince Rainier III of Monaco attends the Champions League soccer match AS Monaco versus FC Lokomotiv Moscow, in Monaco, in this March 10, 2004, file photo. (AP/Lionel Cironneau)
MONACO (AP) - Monaco's ailing Prince Rainier clung to life Friday, breathing through a respirator in an intensive care unit, with doctors refusing to say whether he might recover.
A health bulletin signed by three doctors appeared grim, saying the state of health of the 81-year-old head of Europe's longest-ruling dynasty - "remained worrisome."
The prince was suffering heart, kidney and breathing problems and the doctors withheld a prognosis, suggesting the outcome was uncertain.
"Because of the fragility of his cardiac, respiratory and kidney functions, the vital prognosis remains reserved," the statement said.
The medical team at the seaside Cardio-Thoracic Center called in a specialist from Paris because of "the gravity of the situation," the latest medical bulletin said.
Dr. Jean-Charles Piette, chief of internal medicine at Paris' La Pitie Salpetriere hospital, examined Rainier on Thursday night, said palace spokesman Armand Deus. The team decided to continue the current treatment.
Priests were asking worshippers at Good Friday services in Monaco to pray for Rainier, said Deus. Rainier has headed this Riviera principality since 1949, carrying on the Grimaldi dynasty, which is more than 700 years old.
"Every hour we turn on the news, hoping to hear something positive," said Nathalie Ponsenard, a Monaco nursery school teacher. She pointed to the flag atop the hilltop royal palace.
"While it's still up, we know he's still alive," she said.
Rainier's heir, Crown Prince Albert, 47, and his two daughters, Princess Caroline, 48, and Princess Stephanie, 40, have been at his bedside since he was taken to intensive care.
Rainier was hospitalized March 7 with a chest infection. His health suddenly worsened, and he was transferred Tuesday to the intensive care unit of the Cardio-Thoracic Center.
Boyan Christophorov, a professor of internal medicine at Paris V University, said the phrasing of Rainier's medical bulletin suggested that his doctors seriously fear for the prince's life.
"The terms of these releases are carefully weighed. That the patient's vital prognostic is 'reserved' means that his life is seriously threatened," Christophorov said.
The silver-haired Rainier is like a father figure to many here and some residents were bracing themselves for what would be a new era.
"He's done so much for us, even for the young people," said Melanie Poisson, a 17-year-old high school student. "He's been prince for my whole life. It's hard to imagine Monaco without him."
The prince is beloved in Monaco, and has left his mark on his Mediterranean principality smaller than New York's Central Park. He has transformed Monaco into a modern and elegant enclave for the rich. Rainier's movie-star wife, Grace Kelly, died in a car crash in 1982.
Prince Albert, who is unmarried and has no children, would succeed Rainier. Monaco revised its constitution in 2002 to accommodate the situation, allowing power to pass from a reigning prince who has no descendants to his siblings. Both of Albert's sisters have children.
© The Canadian Press 2005
Let me be the first.Prince albert is in the can.
Sad...
"Monaco's ailing Prince Rainier clung to life Friday, breathing through a respirator in an intensive care unit"
Only because Judge Greer has no jurisdiction in Monaco. . .
Does Monaco--how shall I phrase this delicately?--does Monaco have any realistic hope that young Prince Albert might sire yet children? Or are his interests such that this is unlikely?
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