Pope fractures wrist in fall

Posted on July 17, 2009 by Cindy Wooden (Catholic News Service)

VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI fell overnight, fracturing his right wrist. The pope was in the Salesian-owned chalet in the northern Italian Alps where he is vacationing.

Papal spokesman Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi said, “after a fall in his room overnight, the Holy Father suffered a slight fracture of his right wrist.”

“Nevertheless, in the morning the Holy Father celebrated Mass and had breakfast, then was accompanied to the hospital in Aosta where the slight fracture was discovered and his wrist was immobilized.”

Earlier, Father Lombardi told reporters that the 82-year-old pope was advised by his doctor to go to the hospital for tests.

When asked if the pope lost consciousness, Father Lombardi told CNS, “Absolutely not.” And, he said, the pope walked to the car and into the hospital on his own two feet.

As of 11 a.m. Rome time, the pope was still in the emergency room and Father Lombardi expected him to return to the chalet in Les Combes in the early afternoon.

The spokesman said he had not yet spoken to the pope’s doctor Patrizio Polisca, who accompanied the pope to Les Combes, so he does not know if the pope’s wrist is in a cast or is simply wrapped and splinted.

The pope is scheduled to recite the Angelus Sunday with visitors gathered outside the chalet. Father Lombardi said it was too early to know if that plan would change.

http://cnsblog.wordpress.com/2009/07/17/pope-goes-to-emergency-room-after-fall/