He was admitted to Gemelli hospital on Feb 14 for a bout of bronchitis that developed into double pneumonia, an especially serious condition for him, as he had pleurisy as a young adult and had part of one lung removed.
The Vatican provided an unusual amount of detail in its daily updates on the pope’s condition during his stay in hospital, which included four “respiratory crises” involving serious coughing fits caused by constrictions in his airways, akin to asthma attacks.
Alfieri had previously said that two of the crises were critical, putting Pope Francis “in danger of his life”. In the new interview, the doctor said it was the pope’s personal nurse who, after the vomiting episode, instructed the medical team to keep going with treatment.
“Try everything; don’t give up,” came the message from Massimiliano Strappetti, the pope’s nurse, as recounted by Alfieri.
“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,” said Alfieri.
Pope Francis has been prescribed a further two-month period of rest since leaving hospital to fully heal. It has not been made clear how much he will be seen in public in coming weeks.
Recounting the pope’s first public appearance since entering hospital, when Pope Francis appeared on a hospital balcony to greet well-wishers on Sunday, Alfieri said that was the moment of the pope’s treatment that struck him the most.
“I saw him leave the room on the 10th floor of the Gemelli dressed in white,” said the doctor. “It was the emotion of seeing the man become again the pope.”
