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Very charming, very stubborn. That’s Pope Francis in a nutshell, according to one of his doctors.
Following a colon operation last year, Francis has repeatedly let it be known that he did not want more surgery, and since May, Francis, 85, has frequently been seen using a wheelchair or walking stick due to his knee ailment.
Spanish football team Atlético de Madrid’s head doctor, José María Villalón, was asked to treat the pontiff’s enduring knee problem.
Villalón told Cope, the radio network of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, that he had been “very nervous” when he first spoke to the pontiff, owing to the pressure he felt to get a “world figure” back into shape.
However, he also told Cope, “Pope Francis is a very nice but very stubborn patient, in the sense that there are surgical proposals that he doesn’t want.
Villalón was called in to “improve his mobility and stop his arthritic process” without resorting to surgery.
The doctor said that the pope’s issue with his knee had affected some of his other joints as well.
“Sometimes it starts with a joint with osteoarthritis, and other joints deteriorate because they are overloaded,” he said.
“We are trying to make sure that this does not advance and that things get better.”
“More conservative treatments must be offered to him.”
The treatment is made more challenging due to the pontiff’s busy itinerary, however, Villalón remains optimistic the Pope can be helped.
Francis cancelled a trip to South Sudan in early July because of the knee problem but travelled to Canada later that month, where he appeared in a wheelchair.
He said at the time that he could no longer travel like he used to because of the ailment.
The pain in his knee was so bad during a recent journey to Bahrain that he was unable to do his usual walk-around to greet journalists on the papal flight from Rome.
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