CNN
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The medical staff looking after Pope Francis considered ending his treatment so he could die, according to the doctor who led the team caring for the pontiff.
Professor Sergio Alfieri told Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera the most critical moment came on February 28 when the pope had a breathing crisis and inhaled his own vomit.
“We had to choose whether to stop and let him go or force it and try with all the drugs and therapies possible, running the very high risk of damaging other organs. And in the end, we took this path,” Alfieri said.
Alfieri, who led the team at Rome’s Gemelli hospital, said the decision to continue with treatment was made by Massimiliano Strappetti, Francis’ nurse. He reportedly told Alfieri: “Try everything, we won’t give up. That’s what we all thought too. And no one gave up.”
Francis left the hospital on March 23 after 38 days in hospital, the longest since his election as pope. The pontiff had a number of breathing crises during his time in hospital, with Alfieri previously saying that two of them put the pope’s life in danger.
During his stay the Vatican provided an extraordinary level of detail about Francis’ condition.
Alfieri said this was the pope’s decision and that the Vatican’s bulletins were prepared by the medical team with some additions from Francis’ personal secretaries. “From the first day he asked us to tell him the truth and he wanted us to tell the truth about his condition… nothing was ever changed or omitted.”
