Reports are now saying the Pope John Paul II has a tracheotomy. A tracheotomy, sometimes called a tracheostomy, is a surgical proceedure creating a small hole in the person’s neck and inserting a small tube to allow air to proceed to the trachea after by-passing the mouth and nose.
The operation is usually done under general anesthesia and from what I can remember from medical science classes, takes about two weeks to recover. Of course, the Pope is an 84-year old man so the recovery timeframe is outside my knowledge.