Italian medical staff considered pulling the plug on the Pope so he could die in peace: doctor

The doctor who tended to a gravely ill Pope Francis has revealed that his team at one point considered ending the pontiff’s treatment so that he could die in peace.

Pope Francis came so close to death that the staff who tended on him in an Italian hospital, considered a plan to end his suffering.

CNN reports the lead doctor on the medical team looking after the ailing pontiff, who was hospitalised on February 14 for double pneumonia, considered stopping his treatment so that he could die in peace.

Pope Francis waves as he leaves by car the Gemelli hospital after a five weeks hospitalisation for pneumonia. His doctor revealed the medical staff at one point considered discontinuing his treatment. Picture: AFP

Professor Sergio Alfieri told Italian media that at a critical point in Pope Franics’ illness, when the pontiff inhaled his own vomit on February 28, they had a weighty decision to make.

“We had to choose whether to stop and let him go and force it and try with all the drugs and therapies possible, running the very high risk of damaging other organs.

“And in the end, we took this path,” Dr Alfieri said.

It was Francos’ nurse who made the end decision, said Alfieri who leads the team at Rome’s Gemelli hospital.

The pope’s “personal health care assistant Massimiliano Strappetti” encouraged them not to give up.

Strappetti reportedly said, “Try everything, we won’t give up. That’s what we all thought, too. And no one gave up.”

ROYAL VISIT POSTPONED

It comes as Buckingham Palace announced King Charles and Queen Camilla’s planned visit to the Vatican to meet with Pope Francis has been postponed.

Pope Francis (L) speaking with then Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, during a private audience on April 4, 2017 at the Vatican. Picture: AFP Photo

In a statement released on Tuesday afternoon, UK time, it was explained that the decision had come “by mutual agreement”.

“The King and Queen’s State Visit to The Holy See has been postponed by mutual agreement, as medical advice has now suggested that Pope Francis would benefit from an extended period of rest and recuperation,” the statement read.

“Their Majesties send The Pope their best wishes for his convalescence and look forward to visiting him in The Holy See, once he has recovered.”

Pope Francis appears at a window of the Gemelli hospital before being discharged following a five weeks hospitalisation for pneumonia, in Rome on March 23, 2025. Picture: AFP

POPE FRANCIS LEAVES HOSPITAL, RETURNS TO VATICAN

Pope Francis greeted and thanked the faithful from a balcony of Rome’s Gemelli hospital, the first time the 88-year-old has been seen in public since his admission on February 14.

“Thank you, everyone”, a weak-sounding Francis said into a microphone on Sunday, as he sat in a wheelchair waving gently to hundreds of people gathered below, and doing the occasional thumbs-up sign.

“I can see that woman with yellow flowers, well done”, he said with a small smile, to laughter from the crowd.

Pope Francis waving to the crowd from a window of the Gemelli hospital in Rome before being discharged following a five weeks hospitalisation for pneumonia. Picture: AFP

Pope Francis appears at a window of the Gemelli hospital. He is to leave hospital today and return to his residence in the Vatican, where he is to spend "at least two months" recovering, one of his doctors announced. Picture: AFP

The head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics, who has spent over five weeks in hospital battling pneumonia, was on the balcony for two minutes then was discharged immediately.

He left by car, waving from the closed window of the front seat as he drove past journalists, and could be seen wearing a cannula - a plastic tube tucked into his nostrils which delivers oxygen.

Francis looked tired and thinner than usual. Doctors have said that his health has improved sufficiently for him to go home, but that he still faces a long recovery of at least two months.

It comes as the pontiff called Sunday for an “immediate” end to Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip, and for the resumption of dialogue for the release of hostages and a “definitive ceasefire”.

“I am saddened by the resumption of the intense Israeli bombardment of the Gaza Strip, with so many deaths and injuries”, Francis wrote in his Angelus prayer, which was published Sunday as Francis was being discharged from hospital.

“I ask that the weapons be silenced immediately and that the courage be found to resume dialogue so that all the hostages can be freed and a definitive ceasefire reached”, said Francis.

Originally published as Italian medical staff considered pulling the plug on the Pope so he could die in peace: doctor