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Pope Francis, who recently emerged from a severe health crisis that saw him hospitalised for 38 days battling double pneumonia, had reached such critical stage that doctors considered ending treatment to allow him to die peacefully, Reuters reported on Tuesday, quoting the head of the pope’s medical team.
Admitted to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on February 14 for bronchitis, Pope’s health deteriorated, leading to respiratory crises and signs of kidney failure. On February 28, the 88-year-old leader of the Roman Catholic Church faced a life-threatening episode where he nearly choked on his vomit, prompting his medical team to reassess his treatment plan. “There was a real risk he might not make it,” said Sergio Alfieri, a physician at Rome’s Gemelli hospital, according to Reuters.
Alfieri further recounted the gravity of the situation, and said the risk of organ damage from continued aggressive treatment was high. “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,” Alfieri told Italy’s Corriere della Sera in an interview published on Tuesday.
“In the end, we took this path,” he reportedly said, adding that it was Massimiliano Strappetti, the Pope’s personal nurse, who had advocated for relentless intervention, urging the team to “try everything; don’t give up,” following Francis’s vomiting episode.
Responding to this call, doctors persisted with intensive therapy, which gradually improved the pope’s condition. “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 reportedly said.
Pope Francis made his first public appearance since hospitalisation on March 23, appearing frail but determined as he addressed well-wishers from a hospital balcony.
Doctors have prescribed two months of rest to ensure a full recovery, the report stated.
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