Pope to Have Own Paramedics on US Visit

To ensure the health of Pope Benedict XVI as he visits New York for three days this month, the 80-year-old pontiff will have his own team of 14 paramedics working in 12-hour shifts. The team members, from St. Vincent's Hospital in Manhattan, were chosen based on their experience, including three who worked the detail during Pope John Paul II's visit in 1995. That visit "was choreographed to the second," one of the veteran paramedics told Newsday. The team will go through a one-day motorcade course from the New York Police Department and receive up-to-the-minute briefings on the pope's health. The ambulance that will travel in the papal motorcade was blessed by bishops on Friday