Pope Francis came so close to death at one point during his fight in hospital against pneumonia that his doctors considered ending treatment so that the 88-year-old pontiff could die peacefully, the head of the pope’s medical team said on Tuesday.

After a breathing crisis on February 28 that involved Francis nearly choking on his vomit, “there was a real risk he might not make it,” said Sergio Alfieri, a physician at Rome’s Gemelli hospital.

“We had to choose if we would stop there and let him go, or to go forward and push it with all the drugs and therapies possible, running the highest risk of damaging his other organs,” Alfieri told Italy’s Corriere della Sera.

Francis, pope since 2013, was treated at Gemelli hospital for 38 days in the most serious health crisis of his 12-year papacy.

He was admitted on February 14 for a bout of bronchitis that developed into double pneumonia, an especially serious condition for Francis, who had pleurisy as a young adult and had part of one lung removed.

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