Pope Francis was so close to de@th during his weeks-long hospital stay to the point that doctors considered ending his pneumonia treatment so he could just d!e in peace, the head of his medical team revealed Tuesday, March 25.
The 88-year-old pope’s most dire moment came on Feb. 28 when he nearly choked on his vomit after being hospitalized for a breathing crisis, according to Sergio Alfieri, a top physician at Rome’s Gemelli hospital.
“There was a real risk he might not make it,” the doctor told Italy’s Corriere della Sera newspaper.
“We had to choose if we would stop there and let him go, or to go forward and push it with all the drugs and therapies possible, running the highest risk of damaging his other organs.”
“In the end, we took this path,” he added.
The pontiff was admitted to Gemelli Hospital back on February 14 for a bout of bronchitis, which quickly developed into double pneumonia — a troubling condition given he had part of one lung removed as a young man.
The Vatican provided extremely detailed daily updates during his 38-day fight.
The doctor said it was the pope’s personal nurse, Massimiliano Strappetti, who urged the medical team to keep up the treatment in the wake of the vomiting episode.
‘Try everything, we won’t give up’,” he said of the nurse’s instructions. “That’s what we all thought too. And no one gave up.”
“For days, we were risking damage to his kidneys and bone marrow, but we went ahead — and his body responded to the drugs and his lung infection lessened,” Alfieri added.
The behind-the-scenes take on Francis’ condition emerged as a frail-looking pope emerged on the hospital balcony to greet well-wishers on Sunday before finally returning to the Vatican after a five-week stay.
“I saw him leave the room on the 10th floor of the Gemelli dressed in white,” Alfieri said as he recounted the pope’s first public appearance in weeks.
“It was the emotion of seeing the man become again the pope.”
Since leaving the hospital, Francis has been ordered to rest for another two months in order to fully heal.
It wasn’t immediately clear how much he’ll be seen in public in the coming weeks.