DOCTORS and aides are keeping an anxious watch on a frail and flu-stricken Pope John Paul II in a room at a Rome hospital after he was rushed there fighting for breath early today. The Pope's health has periodically given cause for concern in recent years as he fought the effects of advanced age and Parkinson's disease, but not since a would-be assassin's bullet just missed his heart in 1981 has he appeared so close to sudden death. Papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said in a statement that the pontiff had been fighting for breath with throat spasms when he was rushed to the Gemelli hospital shortly before 11pm last night (9am Wednesday AEDT).Navarro-Valls said the Pope was suffering from a laryngo-spasm, a medical term for the closure of the larynx that blocks the passage of air to the lungs. In severe cases, it can require a tracheotomy to be performed. As journalists and television crews swarmed around the hospital entrance, medical sources quoted by Italy's Ansa news agency said today they expected the pontiff to have a quiet night without further complications. His personal doctor Renato Buzzonetti and the hospital's director have now both left the hospital.