Pope Francis was so close to death during his 38-day battle with pneumonia that doctors considered ending treatment so he could die peacefully, the head of the Roman pontiff's medical team said, Reuters reported, BTA reports.
After a respiratory crisis on February 28, in which Francis almost choked on vomit, "there was a real risk that he would not survive", said Sergio Alfieri, a doctor at Rome's "Gemelli" hospital.
"We had to decide whether to stop there and let him go, or "We will continue and subject him to all possible drugs and therapies, taking a huge risk of damaging his other organs," Alfieri told the Italian newspaper "Corriere della Sera" in an interview published today.
"In the end, we chose this path," he said.
Francis, 88, returned to the Vatican on Sunday after the most serious threat to his health since his pontificate began 12 years ago.
On February 14, he was admitted to the "Gemelli" hospital for bronchitis, which developed into bilateral pneumonia. This is a particularly difficult situation for him, as he suffered from pleurisy in his youth and had part of one of his lungs removed.
The Vatican has provided unusually detailed daily updates on the pope's condition in the hospital, where he has suffered four "respiratory crises," involving severe coughing fits caused by narrowing of the airways, similar to asthma attacks.
Alfieri had previously said that two of the crises were critical and had left Francis "in a life-threatening condition." In the new interview, the doctor said that it was the pope's personal medical assistant who, after the vomiting incident, instructed the medical team to continue with the treatment.
"Try everything, don't give up", read the message from Massimiliano Strappetti, the pope's medical assistant.
"For days there was a risk of damaging his kidneys and bone marrow, but we continued and his body responded to the drugs and his lung infection subsided," Alfieri said.
After being discharged from the hospital, the pope was prescribed an additional two-month rest period to fully recover. It is unclear how often he will be seen in public in the coming weeks.
On Sunday, before leaving the hospital, Francis appeared on the balcony of the hospital in a wheelchair, smiling and waving to people gathered outside the hospital.