LA JOLLA, Calif. -- Mother Teresa, the Nobel Peace Prize winning head of the Missionaries of Charity, was 'seriously ill' Monday, suffering from bacterial pneumonia and heart problems, hospital officials said.
The 81-year-old Calcutta nun was in an intensive care unit at Scripps Clinic and was 'seriously ill but making progress,' hospital spokeswoman Sue Pondrom said.
Mother Teresa was admitted to Scripps Clinic Dec. 26 with bacterial pneumonia, Pondrom said.
'Saturday evening, Dec. 28, she developed symptoms of myocardial ischemia (which is an inadequate blood supply to the heart) which caused a brief episode of heart failure,' Pondrom said.
The spokeswoman described the heart failure as 'a temporary weakening of the heart's ability to pump blood, but there was no damage to the muscle cells. It was not a heart attack.'
On Sunday, doctors performed an angiogram, a diagnostic procedure that indicated blockages in her coronary arteries, Pondrom said.
'On Sunday afternoon, a balloon angioplasty procedure was performed successfully,' Pondrom said. 'A Palmaz-Schatz coronary stent was used to maintain the opening of one of the arterial blockages.'
Doctors said the elderly advocate for the homeless, destitute and ill was making progress and that if her condition continued to improve she would be hospitalized for about another week to treat her heart, the pneumonia and to watch for potential new problems.
Mother Teresa had arrived in San Diego Dec. 11 and immeditately traveled to Tijuana, Mexico, the last stop of a worldwide visit to local communities of the Missionaries of Charity.
She became ill while in Tijuana and was treated by Dr. Patricia Aubanel, who recommended that Mother Teresa be hospitalized.
'This was also urged by Bishop Emilio Berlie of Tijuana and her Missionaries of Charity there, and was finally accepted by Mother Teresa,' Pondrom said.
Aubanel and Dr. Paul Teirstein, the director of interventional cardiology at Scripps, performed the angiogram and angioplasty and stent insertion. Dr. Lawrence Kline, a member of Scripps Clinic's division of chest medicine, has treated Mother Teresa for the bacterial pneumonia.
Doctors said the first two weeks following an angioplasty are the most critical time for patients due to the risk of arterial closing or increased bleeding from required blood-thinning medication, Pondrom said.
Bishop Robert Brom of San Diego has visited Mother Teresa to pray with her and assure her of the prayerful support of the priests and people of the Dioceses of San Diego, she said.
The bishop indicated that Mother Teresa was pleased with his visit, and was happy to receive a personal message and assurance of prayer from Pope John Paul II.
'Mother Teresa said she personally wishes all a Merry Christmas season and blessings for the New Year of 1992,' Pondrom said.
Mother Teresa is unable to receive flowers, gifts or visits since she is hospitalized in the clinic's intensive care unit, the Scripps spokeswoman said.
The Roman Catholic nun won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her work with the poorest of the poor, starving and dying, which began on the streets of Calcutta, India, where she founded the Missionaries of Charity.
The order, which was recognized by the Vatican in 1950, has more than 1,100 sisters and more than 40,000 co-workers in centers in India and 91 other countries.
Born Agness Gonxha Bojaxhiu of Albanian parents in Yugoslavia on Aug. 27, 1910, Mother Teresa decided in her teenage years to be a missionary and left Yugoslavia after being accepted in 1929 to help a mission in Calcutta.
After taking her final vows at the Loweto Convent in CalcQtta, she taught for about 15 years. In 1946 she received permission to leave her order and work among the poor.
