Dr. Sergio Alfieri said that the 88 -year -old pontiff and people close to him understood equally “that the night might not survive”, after the Broncospasm attack during which the Pope inhaled the vomiting.
“We needed to choose whether to stop it and let it go, or promote it and try with all possible medications and treatments, assuming the high risk of damaging other organs,” Alfieri told Milan Daily Corriere Della Sera.
“In the end, that is the path we choose.”
Francis was released on Sunday after 38 days of treatment for double pneumonia, under the orders of doctors to observe two months of convalescence during which he should avoid great meetings. The Pope seemed weak and fragile when he greeted the crowd outside the Gemelli hospital before his discharge.
The Vatican has not indicated if the Pope would participate in any activity of Holy Week that led Easter on April 20. His planned meeting next month with King Carlos III at the Vatican was postponed in a mutual agreement on Tuesday to allow the Pope to rest.
Alfieri said that the Pope remained “alert” during the terrible experience of February 28 and that his assistant medical care personnel, Massimiliano Strappetti, “who perfectly knows the wishes of the pontiff”, urged them to “try everything. Do not laugh.”
Alfieri acknowledged that the treatment risked to damage the kidneys and bone marrow of the Pope “, but we continue, and his body responded to treatments and pulmonary infection improved.”
The medical bulletin that night said the Pope had suffered a bronchiospasm so severe that the vomit inhaled “worsening his respiratory image.” Doctors used a non -invasive aspiration to clear their airways.
World confronted by the photo of the vulture waiting for the hungry child to die
Three days later, in a second life and death crisis, the Pope suffered a couple of episodes of acute bronchiosms.
The doctors used a camera tube with a device to remove mucus plugs that threw abundant secretions. The newsletter emphasized that the Pope “always remained alert, oriented and collaborative.”
Alfieri said he believed that prayers for the Pope help him keep alive, something that the doctor said is backed by scientific literature.
“In this case, everyone was praying. I can say that the situation was lost twice, and then it happened as a miracle,” said the doctor, added that “of course he was a very cooperative patient.”
