Pope Francis is a pioneering pontiff in many ways — he’s the first to take
the name of Francis, the first pope from South America, and the first to don the
papal robes with one lung.
According to the Associated Press, the new Pope had one of his organs removed
as a teenager, presumably after a bout with an infection. At that time, it’s
possible that antibiotic treatments that are commonly used today to treat such
infections were not as available, and to protect patients from further health
problems doctors removed the lung as way to stop the infection from
spreading.
“It was probably a pretty bad infection, and maybe even an abscess, that
might have caused him to bleed,” says Dr. John Belperio, association professor
of pulmonary and critical care medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine
at University of California Los Angeles. “If he were bleeding a lot in the lung,
the only thing to do is to resect
the lung, take it out, to stop the bleeding.”
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Most bacterial infections wouldn’t cause such serious damage to the lung
tissue, but, says Dr. Ronald Crystal, professor of medicine at
NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, some strains, such as
staphylococci, are more destructive and could eat away at the delicate organ,
leaving doctors with no choice but to remove the affected tissue to prevent more
widespread health problems.
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and Circumstance: the Road to the Papacy)
Anything from pneumonia to a fungus or even tuberculosis could have caused
the initial infection, which, if it wasn’t controlled properly, would have
resulted in removal of the lung.
Other possible reasons for the surgery include a birth defect that caused an
abnormality in the lung tissue, or an unusual growth of blood vessels into the
air sacs that would obstruct normal breathing.
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Fortunately, the lungs are a redundant system, and losing one lung doesn’t
seriously compromise health. The only concern Pope Francis faced, and will
continue to face, is that he has less respiratory reserve than someone with two
intact lungs. That means he may be at slightly higher risk of complications from
influenza or more vulnerable to succumbing to pneumonia. But, says Belperio, the
fact that the 76-year old has lived a relatively healthy life so far
demonstrates that his surgery did little to hamper his ability to live a full
and active life.
Read more: 10 Things You Should Know About Pope Francis
