Vatican City: Pope Francis faced a life-threatening health crisis during his 38-day hospitalization for pneumonia, with his medical team at one point debating whether to cease treatment, allowing him to pass away peacefully, according to the head of his medical team.
During a severe breathing crisis on February 28, the 88-year-old pontiff nearly choked on his vomit, putting his life at grave risk. “There was a real risk he might not make it,” said Sergio Alfieri, a physician at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital.
“We had to choose if we would stop there and let him go, or go forward with all available drugs and therapies, even at the highest risk of damaging his other organs,” Alfieri told Corriere della Sera in an interview published on Tuesday. “In the end, we took this path.”
Francis returned to the Vatican on Sunday following what has been described as the most serious health crisis of his 12-year papacy. Initially admitted to Gemelli Hospital on February 14 for bronchitis, his condition worsened into double pneumonia, a particularly dangerous development given his history of pleurisy as a young man, which led to the partial removal of one lung.
Throughout his hospitalization, the Vatican provided unusually detailed daily updates on his condition, revealing that he endured four “respiratory crises” involving severe coughing fits caused by airway constrictions similar to asthma attacks.
Alfieri previously stated that two of these crises were critical and life-threatening. In the latest interview, he credited Francis’ personal nurse, Massimiliano Strappetti, with the decision to persist with treatment following the near-fatal vomiting episode.
“Try everything; don’t give up,” Strappetti urged the medical team, according to Alfieri.
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“For days, we were risking damage to his kidneys and bone marrow, but we pressed on. His body responded to the drugs, and his lung infection gradually subsided,” Alfieri added.
Since his release, Francis has been prescribed two months of rest to ensure a full recovery. The extent of his public appearances in the coming weeks remains uncertain.
Reflecting on the pope’s first public appearance since his hospitalization, when he greeted well-wishers from a hospital balcony, Alfieri described the moment as deeply moving.
“I saw him leave the room on the 10th floor of the Gemelli dressed in white,” he recalled. “It was the emotion of seeing the man become again the pope.”
