CALCUTTA: Doctors had implanted a pacemaker in Mother Teresa to steady her heartbeat, but they feared she might be developing pneumonia, a hospital source said.
Doctors at Woodlands Nursing Home gave the 79 year old Roman Catholic nun a temporary pacemaker after her heartbeat became irregular said the hospital source.
While the pacemaker which corrected her heart problem, he said Mother Teresa had a high fever and was not responding to antibiotics,
“The fever is causing the doctors more concern right now than her heart. Her fever is very high and she has not been responding adequately to antibiotics. They think she might have pneumonia, the source said.
He said the frail, soft spoken nun was conscious but heavily sedated.
Meanwhile, Dr. Vicenzo Billotta, Mother Teresa’s longtime cardiologist in Rome said he was preparing to travel of Calcutta.
“I am going to comfort her and also, if I can, to do something though I am sure that my colleagues in Calcutta are doing everything they possibly can,” Bilotta said,
Mother Teresa, whose devotion to the destitute and dying earned her the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize, became ill Sept 3.
Article extracted from this publication >> September 15, 1989
