OAN Staff James Meyers
10:58 AM – Tuesday, March 25, 2025
New reports have revealed that Pope Francis was so close dying at one point during his 38-day fight in the hospital against pneumonia, that doctors considered ending his treatment.
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After a breathing crisis on February 28th that involved the Pope almost choking on his own vomit, “there was a real risk he might not make it,” said Sergio Alfieri, a physician at Rome’s Gemelli hospital.
“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.
Alfieri told The Vatican that Francis “delegated every type of healthcare decision to Massimiliano Strappetti, his personal healthcare assistant who knows the Pope’s wishes perfectly.”
“Try everything, we won’t give up,” Alfieri recalled Strappetti telling staff at the hospital. “That’s what we all thought too. And no one gave up”.
“Even when [Francis’] condition worsened he was fully conscious. That evening was terrible, he knew, like us, that he might not survive the night,” Alfieri also told Corriere della Sera. “We saw the man who was suffering. But from day one he asked us to tell him the truth and he wanted us to tell the truth about his condition.”
Francis was eventually discharged from the hospital in Rome on Sunday.
He was then prescribed a further two month period of rest after leaving the hospital to make a full recovery. However, it has not been made clear how much he will be seen in public in the coming weeks.
Francis left the hospital on March 23rd after 38 days in hospital, the longest of his four stays since his election as Pope 12 years ago. The Pope had a number of breathing issues during his time in the hospital, with Alfieri previously saying that two of the serious crises’ put the Pope’s life in danger.
Meanwhile, the Pope will return to work gradually. Francis has not led the Angelus prayer for the past seven Sundays, and has called for peace in regions of war.
“You have continued to pray for me with so much patience and perseverance. Thank you so much. I also pray for you,” he said in a post on X on Sunday. “Let us pray together for peace, especially in martyred Ukraine, Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Myanmar, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.”
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