Italian doctors recommend inserting pope's tube through abdomen

Published: 2005-03-31

ROME (CNS) -- The physician who heads the Italian Parkinson's association and other doctors who care for patients unable to swallow said if they were Pope John Paul II's doctors they would advise him to have a feeding tube inserted directly into his stomach through his abdomen. Three Italian physicians were quoted repeatedly March 30-31 after the Vatican announced Pope John Paul, who is believed to have Parkinson's disease, was being nourished through a nasogastric tube, which runs from the nose to the stomach. None of the doctors had ever treated Pope John Paul, and all of them emphasized they were speaking only on the basis of their experience with their patients.

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