The Pope was twice on the brink of death during his 38-day hospitalization at Gemelli Hospital, and the head of the accompanying medical team, surgeon Sergio Alfieri, who had operated on him on two previous occasions, said they faced a dilemma: “We had to decide between stopping and letting him go or try all possible medications and therapies, at very high risk.” In an interview with “Corriere della Sera”, Italy’s main newspaper Alfieri stated that “the Pope knew he could die”. The people who accompanied him “had their eyes full of tears.”
On February 28 the Pope had a bronchospasm. He had been hospitalized on the 14th because of asthmatic bronchitis, but two days later Gemelli doctors discovered something much worse: bilateral pneumonia (in both lungs) and dissemination of various types of viruses and other microbes.
“We all knew there was no other option but to try everything,” said Alfieri. He also said that all the people who accompanied the Pope were crying, especially his trusted nurse, Massimiliano Strapetti, appointed personal health advisor by Bergoglio, who said to the surgeon, “Try everything, don’t give up.”
“And no one gave up.” Even when he realized he could die, the Pope did not give up. “Even when his state worsened he encouraged us, because he was totally conscious,” said Alfieri.
The surgeon said that since the first day of his stay at Gemelli Hospital the Pope “asked us that we always contain him the truth about his health.”
“For days we risk harming your kidneys and bone marrow, but we continue: so the body responded to treatments and pulmonary infection has improved.”
A few days later, the second episode occurred in which the Pope was close to death. “We were coming out of the hard time, but during a meal Pope vomited and aspired. This was the second critical moment because in these cases, if the patient is not quickly rescued, there is a risk of sudden death. Or complications in the lungs, which were already the most committed organs.” It was terrible, we thought we couldn’t get it. “
The surgeon lovingly recalls a special moment: “At the hardest time, he held my hand for a few minutes, as if seeking help.”
When the worst passed, the Pope asked to take a walk around the papal suite of the tenth floor. He was in a wheelchair and wanted to greet the other patients on the floor. Alfieri told the joy that everyone felt when an afternoon the Pope gave one of his employees “and asked pizza for all who helped him.”
About his convalescence at Casa Santa Marta, Dr. Alfieri told Corriere della to be that “there are prescriptions that should be observed, such as avoiding contact with groups of people or children, who could be vehicles of new contamination.
“When the Pope returned to Rome on Sunday, we talked and swore we weren’t going to waste the effort we had made,” said the surgeon. “Francis is the Pope, and we cannot dictate his behavior.”