One year ago, on February 24th 2005. the Holy Father, John Paul II, was readmitted to hospital Gemelli, where he had been hospitalised from 1st to 10th February. The afternoon of 23rd February, John Paul II suffered a relapse in the influenza syndrome he had already suffered from the previous weeks, aggravated by subintrant bouts of acute respiratory failure. The evening of 24th February last year, then, John Paul II underwent an elective tracheotomy procedure to provide sufficient ventilation and boost the recovery of his laryngeal condition. The doctors ordered the Pope not to speak for a few days, to boost the recovery of his laryngeal function. After the surgery, John Paul II wrote a note: “I am always Totus Tuus”, thus entrusting once again the Virgin with his own person and his office. Only on March 13th did the Pope go back to the Vatican to continue his convalescence.
