In an interview with 'Corriere della Sera,' Dr. Alfieri talks about Francis’ health crises and how the question arose of stopping treatment and “letting him go.”Lenten Campaign 2025
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Two days after Pope Francis returned to the Vatican, one of his doctors at Gemelli Hospital spoke to Italian daily Corriere della Sera (in an article published on March 25, 2025) about the circumstances of the hospitalization of the 88-year-old pontiff. Hospitalized on February 14 for a serious respiratory infection, the Argentine Pope was discharged from the hospital 38 days later, but not before having had two major crises.
The decision to continue treatment and not “let him go”
Doctor Sergio Alfieri reports that, on the afternoon of February 28, the Pope suffered a violent bronchospasm. “For the first time, I saw tears in the eyes of the few people around him,” he tells the Corriere interviewer, Fiorenza Sarzanini. “We were all aware that the situation had deteriorated again and that there was a risk that he wouldn’t pull through.”
At that critical moment, “we had to choose between stopping and letting him go or forcing and trying all possible medications and therapies, running the very high risk of damaging other organs,” says the Italian, who explains that the second option was chosen.
“It’s always the Holy Father who decides,” explains Dr. Alfieri. However, he reports that Francis has ”delegated all health-related decisions to Massimiliano Strappetti, his personal health assistant who is fully aware of the Pope's wishes.”
At Gemelli, the Pope's personal nurse asked the doctors to “try everything.”
“That's what we were all thinking too. And no one gave up.” The doctor admits that for a few days, they “risked damage to the kidneys and bone marrow,” but the Pope’s body responded to the treatments and the lung infection subsided.
“We really thought we wouldn't manage” to save him
Alfieri recalls another crisis that occurred one day while the Pope was eating. “Pope Francis regurgitated and inhaled,” he explains. “It was terrible, we really thought we wouldn't manage” to save him, he recalls.
In the interview with the Italian daily, the professor assures Fiorenza Sarzanini that the Pope understood that he had been at the point of death, and that he had always remained fully conscious.
He adds that the Pope was a “very cooperative” patient and that he submitted to “all the treatments without ever complaining.”
The doctor said that he thinks that “the fact that the whole world was praying” for the Pope was a factor in his survival.
The Sarzanini then asks if he says this “as a believer” (implying that it was not a medical or scientific conclusion). Alfieri responds citing a scientific publication “according to which prayer gives strength to the sick.” Then, he compares the Pope’s recovery from his two moments of crisis in the hospital as being “like a miracle.”
The doctor compares the Pope’s recovery from his two moments of crisis in the hospital as being “like a miracle.”
Always with a sense of humor
Doctor Alfieri mentions that although the Pope arrived at the hospital upset about having to leave the Vatican and renounce some of his Jubilee commitments, he quickly recovered his good humor. He then confirmed an event the reporter inquires about, that had been in the news early one: One day the doctor said, “Good morning, Holy Father,” and Francis jokingly replied, “Good morning, Holy Son.”
As he had done in front of the press last Saturday at Gemelli, the Italian professor reiterated that the head of the Catholic Church must now avoid contact with large groups or with children to prevent new infections.
Pope Francis is convalescing in his apartment at the Santa Marta residence in the Vatican. He is continuing his respiratory and motor physiotherapy.
