Doctors who take care of Pope Francis considered end their treatment at some point because there was “a risk that he would not make it,” said a report.
Gemelli Hospital Medical Director Dr. Sergio Alfieri told about the scenes on 28 February when the 88-year-old cough fit and inhaled vomit, so that staff were asked to give him a ventilation mask to help him breathe.
“For the first time I saw tears in the eyes of some of the people around him. People who, I understood during this period of hospitalization, sincerely love him, as a father. We all knew that the situation had been worsened further and there was a risk that he would not make it,” Alfieri said the Corriere Della Sera newspaper published in an interview.
“We had to choose whether to stop him and let him go or force him and try with all possible medicines and therapies, the very high risk of damaging other organs. And in the end we followed this path,” he added.
Pope Franciscus appears the first public performance in five weeks
Pope Franciscus appears on a window of the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome, on Sunday, March 23, 2025, where he had been treated for bronchitis and bilateral pneumonia since 14 February. (AP/Ricardo de Luca)
The Vatican On Tuesday did not immediately respond to a request for comment from FOX News Digital.
Alfieri told the newspaper that Francis “every type of health care decision to Massimiliano Strappetti, his personal health care assistant who knows the wishes of the Pope perfectly.”
“Try everything, we will not give up,” Alfieri remembered Strappetti employees in the hospital. “That’s what we all thought. And nobody gave up”.
Medical staff offers update on the condition of Pope Francis
Luigi Carbone, left, chief doctor of the Vatican’s Health and Hygiene Office, and surgeon Sergio Alfieri speak with journalists, on Saturday 22 March 2025, in Rome’s Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic. (AP/Gregorio Borgia)
“Even when (Francis’) was deteriorated, he was completely aware. That evening was terrible, he knew, just like us, that he might not survive the night,” Alfieri also told Corriere della Sera. “We saw the man who suffered. But from the first day he asked us to tell him the truth and he wanted us to tell the truth about his condition.”
Francis was eventually discharge from the hospital In Rome on Sunday.
Pope Francis leaves in a car after appearing in a window of the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome, Sunday 23 March 2025. (AP/Stefano Costantino)
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A papal spokesperson said on Tuesday that Francis is very happy to be home again and that his breathing and movement therapy is going on.
