Dr. Sergio Alfieri, the head of Pope Francis’ medical staff, has provided information regarding the pope’s last moments, stating that he passed away quickly after an unexpected stroke without suffering for an extended period of time.
Nothing could have been done to stop the inevitable, said to Alfieri, who also oversaw Pope Francis’ care during a five-week hospital stay for double pneumonia earlier this year.
Speaking Thursday, the doctor from Gemelli Hospital in Rome described how he was called to the Vatican.
On Monday morning, at approximately 5:30 a.m. (0330 GMT), Alfieri remembered receiving a call asking him to come right away. “When I walked into his bedroom, Francis’s eyes were open. I made sure there were no breathing issues. I then tried calling his name, but he didn’t answer. I realized then that there was nothing else to do. He was unconscious.
Alfieri clarified that it would have been pointless for the attending personnel to move the pope back to the hospital for urgent care out of concern.
He would have perished en route. We would have gotten a more precise diagnosis but nothing more if we had done a scan. “It was one of those strokes that takes you away in an hour,” he continued.
As the first Latin American pope, Pope Francis was born Jorge Mario Bergoglio in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1936.
Even though he was eighty-eight and had fought pneumonia before, his passing was unexpected, particularly since he seemed upbeat on Easter Sunday.
The pope’s warm acknowledgement of the faithful in St. Peter’s Square on his popemobile, just one day before he passed away, gave many people hope that he might recover.
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