THURSDAY April 24, 2025 |
By thenewsdesk.ng
Pope Francis died quickly on Monday morning from an unexpected stroke without suffering undue pain, and there was nothing that doctors could have done to save his life, the head of the pontiff’s medical team said in interviews published on Thursday, April 24, 2025, Reuters reports.
Sergio Alfieri, a physician at Rome’s Gemelli hospital, oversaw the pope’s treatment there during a five-week stay when Francis was fighting double pneumonia earlier this year.
Alfieri said he got a phone call at around 5:30 a.m. (0330 GMT) on Monday morning to come quickly to the Vatican and arrived about 20 minutes later.
“I entered his rooms and he (Francis) had his eyes open,” the doctor told Corriere della Sera newspaper. “I ascertained that there were no respiratory problems. And then I tried to call his name, but he did not respond to me.”
“In that moment I knew there was nothing more to do,” said Alfieri. “He was in a coma.”
In a separate interview with La Repubblica, Alfieri said some officials who were present with the pope suggested moving him immediately back to the hospital.
“He would have died on the way,” said the doctor.
“Doing a CT scan we would have had a more exact diagnosis, but nothing more. It was one of those strokes that, in an hour, carries you away.”
Francis was 88 and had nearly died while fighting pneumonia, but his death came as a shock.
Just the previous day he appeared in St. Peter’s Square in an open-air popemobile to greet cheering crowds on Easter Sunday, suggesting his convalescence was going well.
