The head of Pope Francis’s medical team, Dr. Sergio Alfieri, has shared new insights into the pontiff’s final hours, revealing that the 88-year-old passed away swiftly and peacefully on Easter Monday morning.
Dr. Alfieri, who had previously treated the Pope for pneumonia at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, confirmed that Francis died without suffering and that no medical intervention could have saved him.
He recalled receiving an emergency call around 5:30 a.m. summoning him to the Vatican.
When he arrived roughly 20 minutes later, he found Pope Francis conscious but unresponsive.
“I entered his room, and he had his eyes open,” Dr. Alfieri told Corriere della Sera. “I checked his breathing—it was fine—but when I called his name, he didn’t respond.”
Realizing the severity of the situation, Dr. Alfieri understood immediately that the Pope had slipped into a coma.
“At that point, I knew there was nothing more we could do,” he said.
In a separate interview with La Repubblica, Dr. Alfieri noted that some Vatican officials considered moving Francis back to Gemelli Hospital, but it was deemed too risky.
“He would have died on the way,” he explained. “Even with a CT scan, the outcome would have been the same. It was the kind of stroke that takes a person within the hour.”
Although Francis had a near-death experience earlier in the year due to pneumonia, his passing still came as a surprise.
Just a day before his death, he had appeared in St. Peter’s Square in the popemobile, greeting jubilant crowds on Easter Sunday—an encouraging sign of recovery.
After his 38-day hospital stay, which ended on March 23, doctors had prescribed two months of rest for the Pope.
However, Francis resumed work, including a meeting with U.S. Vice President JD Vance on Easter Sunday and a visit to a Roman prison on Holy Thursday, April 17.
Dr. Alfieri clarified that the Pope hadn’t overexerted himself. “He followed our advice. Resuming his duties was part of his healing process,” he said. “He was the Pope—serving was part of who he was.”
The last time Dr. Alfieri saw Francis was on Saturday afternoon, when he brought the Pope a pie in one of his favourite flavours.
“He told me, ‘I feel good, I’ve started working again, and I enjoy it,’” the doctor recalled.
“He wanted to serve as Pope until the very end,” Alfieri said. “And he did not disappoint us.”
In one of their final conversations, the Pope confided a lingering regret: that he had been unable to perform the traditional foot-washing ceremony on Holy Thursday.
“He said to me, ‘This time, I couldn’t do it,’” Dr. Alfieri recounted. “Those were his last words to me.”
