Pope died quickly and without suffering, doctor says
Pope Francis died quickly from an unexpected stroke without suffering undue pain and there was nothing that doctors could have done to save his life, the head of the pontiff's medical team says.
Sergio Alfieri, a physician at Rome's Gemelli hospital, oversaw the Pope's treatment there during a five-week stay when Francis was fighting double pneumonia earlier in 2025.
In interviews published on Thursday, Alfieri said he received a phone call about 5.30am on Monday to go quickly to the Vatican and arrived about 20 minutes later.
'I entered his rooms and he (Francis) had his eyes open,' the doctor told Corriere della Sera newspaper.
'I ascertained that there were no respiratory problems.
'And then I tried to call his name but he did not respond to me.
'In that moment I knew there was nothing more to do.
'He was in a coma.'
In a separate interview with La Repubblica, Alfieri said some officials who were present with the Pope suggested moving him immediately back to the hospital.
'He would have died on the way,' the doctor said.
'Doing a CT scan we would have had a more exact diagnosis, but nothing more.
'It was one of those strokes that, in an hour, carries you away.'
Francis was 88 and had nearly died while fighting pneumonia but his death came as a shock.
Just the previous day he appeared in St Peter's Square in an open-air popemobile to greet cheering crowds on Easter Sunday, suggesting his convalescence was going well.
After Francis returned to the Vatican on March 23 after a 38-day hospital stay, Alfieri and the Pope's other doctors had prescribed him a two-month period of rest to allow his ageing body to heal.
Francis, known to push himself hard, kept working.
He met briefly with US Vice-President JD Vance on Easter Sunday, and had visited a prison in Rome on April 17, Holy Thursday, to offer well wishes to the inmates.
Alfieri said the Pope listened to his doctors' advice and did not push himself too hard.
The doctor said he last saw Francis on Saturday afternoon.
'He was very well,' Alfieri said, adding he gifted the Pope some pie in a flavour he knew the pontiff liked.
He recounted the Pope saying: 'I am very well, I have started working again, and I like it.'
'We knew that he wanted to go home to be pope up until the last moment,' the doctor said.
In the Repubblica interview, Alfieri said Francis had shared one final regret with him.
While he was happy to have visited the prisoners on April 17, he wished he had been able to perform a foot-washing ritual for the Church's celebration of Holy Thursday.
' 'This time I couldn't do it' was the last thing he said to me.'
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The Advertiser
26-05-2025
- The Advertiser
'Your Pippa is still alive': mum's health reform plea
Almost three years after their critically ill toddler's "preventable" and tragic hospital death, her family wants to light a fire of change. Pippa Mae White died from sepsis in June 2022, weeks before her third birthday, after being transferred to Orange Hospital in the NSW central west. "It is very evident to us that our daughter Pippa should not have died," her mother Annah White said on Monday outside an inquest into the girl's tragic death. The inquest, resuming this week, has heard of multiple healthcare failures including understaffing, a lack of training, missed opportunities for escalation and a dismissal of her concerns as a parent, Ms White said. She took Pippa to hospital in Cowra on June 12, about three days after she began experiencing a high temperature, vomiting and diarrhoea. Eventually transferred to Orange, an experienced pediatrician believed Pippa was "getting better" after reading notes from a doctor at Cowra. But Ms White testified that at the time her daughter was "lethargic" and vomiting fluids given to her. At Orange Base Hospital, tests revealed the toddler had pneumonia with a complete white-out of her left lung. But further delays occurred before she suffered two cardiac arrests and died about 12.30pm on June 13. Speaking besides a portrait of her daughter wearing a dress of her favourite colour, yellow, Ms White asked those within the packed courtroom on Monday to consider Pippa as someone in their life they loved dearly. "Now, imagine this tragic death occurred to your Pippa," she said. "How does that make you feel? Hold onto that feeling. "I hope hearing about Pippa's last moments during this inquest lights a fire deep inside you to fight for change - because your Pippas are still alive." The family has suggested mandatory sepsis training, better resourcing of emergency departments and a system for patient, family or carer escalation such as Queensland's Ryan's Rule or Western Australia's Aishwarya's Care Call. Ryan Saunders died of an undiagnosed streptococcal infection in 2007, with his parents feeling their vocal concerns about his condition were not acted on in time by Rockhampton hospital staff. Parental advocacy not being acted upon was also raised after two-year-old Joe Massa died of a cardiac arrest at Sydney's Northern Beaches Hospital in September. He was wrongly triaged and waited two hours for a hospital bed, his parents say. Seven-year-old Aishwarya Aswath died of sepsis on Easter Saturday 2021, hours after presenting to the Perth Children's Hospital emergency department with a fever and unusually cold hands. Her parents had pleaded with clinicians to escalate care. Pippa's inquest on Monday heard from the registered nurse who triaged the toddler at Cowra hospital and noted she had a very high heart rate. Nikota Potter-Bancroft said she put this down to Pippa's anxiety because she seemed upset and did not want the hospital staff to touch her. She was shown a phone video taken of the toddler struggling to breath and grunting 10 minutes before her assessment. Ms Potter-Bancroft said she did not remember seeing Pippa in that way. "Don't you accept that if she was breathing in that manner ... that was a serious failure on your part not to notice that?" the Whites' barrister Richard O'Keefe SC asked. "Not necessarily because I didn't see it," Ms Potter-Bancroft replied. The nurse admitted she had not looked at the hospital's pediatric sepsis pathway when assessing Pippa. But she denied the toddler met the criteria or required a rapid response. The courtroom was packed with Pippa's family and friends who travelled to Sydney for the inquest. Outside court, Ms White described them as "Pip's army" who were all equally broken and shattered. The inquest continues. Almost three years after their critically ill toddler's "preventable" and tragic hospital death, her family wants to light a fire of change. Pippa Mae White died from sepsis in June 2022, weeks before her third birthday, after being transferred to Orange Hospital in the NSW central west. "It is very evident to us that our daughter Pippa should not have died," her mother Annah White said on Monday outside an inquest into the girl's tragic death. The inquest, resuming this week, has heard of multiple healthcare failures including understaffing, a lack of training, missed opportunities for escalation and a dismissal of her concerns as a parent, Ms White said. She took Pippa to hospital in Cowra on June 12, about three days after she began experiencing a high temperature, vomiting and diarrhoea. Eventually transferred to Orange, an experienced pediatrician believed Pippa was "getting better" after reading notes from a doctor at Cowra. But Ms White testified that at the time her daughter was "lethargic" and vomiting fluids given to her. At Orange Base Hospital, tests revealed the toddler had pneumonia with a complete white-out of her left lung. But further delays occurred before she suffered two cardiac arrests and died about 12.30pm on June 13. Speaking besides a portrait of her daughter wearing a dress of her favourite colour, yellow, Ms White asked those within the packed courtroom on Monday to consider Pippa as someone in their life they loved dearly. "Now, imagine this tragic death occurred to your Pippa," she said. "How does that make you feel? Hold onto that feeling. "I hope hearing about Pippa's last moments during this inquest lights a fire deep inside you to fight for change - because your Pippas are still alive." The family has suggested mandatory sepsis training, better resourcing of emergency departments and a system for patient, family or carer escalation such as Queensland's Ryan's Rule or Western Australia's Aishwarya's Care Call. Ryan Saunders died of an undiagnosed streptococcal infection in 2007, with his parents feeling their vocal concerns about his condition were not acted on in time by Rockhampton hospital staff. Parental advocacy not being acted upon was also raised after two-year-old Joe Massa died of a cardiac arrest at Sydney's Northern Beaches Hospital in September. He was wrongly triaged and waited two hours for a hospital bed, his parents say. Seven-year-old Aishwarya Aswath died of sepsis on Easter Saturday 2021, hours after presenting to the Perth Children's Hospital emergency department with a fever and unusually cold hands. Her parents had pleaded with clinicians to escalate care. Pippa's inquest on Monday heard from the registered nurse who triaged the toddler at Cowra hospital and noted she had a very high heart rate. Nikota Potter-Bancroft said she put this down to Pippa's anxiety because she seemed upset and did not want the hospital staff to touch her. She was shown a phone video taken of the toddler struggling to breath and grunting 10 minutes before her assessment. Ms Potter-Bancroft said she did not remember seeing Pippa in that way. "Don't you accept that if she was breathing in that manner ... that was a serious failure on your part not to notice that?" the Whites' barrister Richard O'Keefe SC asked. "Not necessarily because I didn't see it," Ms Potter-Bancroft replied. The nurse admitted she had not looked at the hospital's pediatric sepsis pathway when assessing Pippa. But she denied the toddler met the criteria or required a rapid response. The courtroom was packed with Pippa's family and friends who travelled to Sydney for the inquest. Outside court, Ms White described them as "Pip's army" who were all equally broken and shattered. The inquest continues. Almost three years after their critically ill toddler's "preventable" and tragic hospital death, her family wants to light a fire of change. Pippa Mae White died from sepsis in June 2022, weeks before her third birthday, after being transferred to Orange Hospital in the NSW central west. "It is very evident to us that our daughter Pippa should not have died," her mother Annah White said on Monday outside an inquest into the girl's tragic death. The inquest, resuming this week, has heard of multiple healthcare failures including understaffing, a lack of training, missed opportunities for escalation and a dismissal of her concerns as a parent, Ms White said. She took Pippa to hospital in Cowra on June 12, about three days after she began experiencing a high temperature, vomiting and diarrhoea. Eventually transferred to Orange, an experienced pediatrician believed Pippa was "getting better" after reading notes from a doctor at Cowra. But Ms White testified that at the time her daughter was "lethargic" and vomiting fluids given to her. At Orange Base Hospital, tests revealed the toddler had pneumonia with a complete white-out of her left lung. But further delays occurred before she suffered two cardiac arrests and died about 12.30pm on June 13. Speaking besides a portrait of her daughter wearing a dress of her favourite colour, yellow, Ms White asked those within the packed courtroom on Monday to consider Pippa as someone in their life they loved dearly. "Now, imagine this tragic death occurred to your Pippa," she said. "How does that make you feel? Hold onto that feeling. "I hope hearing about Pippa's last moments during this inquest lights a fire deep inside you to fight for change - because your Pippas are still alive." The family has suggested mandatory sepsis training, better resourcing of emergency departments and a system for patient, family or carer escalation such as Queensland's Ryan's Rule or Western Australia's Aishwarya's Care Call. Ryan Saunders died of an undiagnosed streptococcal infection in 2007, with his parents feeling their vocal concerns about his condition were not acted on in time by Rockhampton hospital staff. Parental advocacy not being acted upon was also raised after two-year-old Joe Massa died of a cardiac arrest at Sydney's Northern Beaches Hospital in September. He was wrongly triaged and waited two hours for a hospital bed, his parents say. Seven-year-old Aishwarya Aswath died of sepsis on Easter Saturday 2021, hours after presenting to the Perth Children's Hospital emergency department with a fever and unusually cold hands. Her parents had pleaded with clinicians to escalate care. Pippa's inquest on Monday heard from the registered nurse who triaged the toddler at Cowra hospital and noted she had a very high heart rate. Nikota Potter-Bancroft said she put this down to Pippa's anxiety because she seemed upset and did not want the hospital staff to touch her. She was shown a phone video taken of the toddler struggling to breath and grunting 10 minutes before her assessment. Ms Potter-Bancroft said she did not remember seeing Pippa in that way. "Don't you accept that if she was breathing in that manner ... that was a serious failure on your part not to notice that?" the Whites' barrister Richard O'Keefe SC asked. "Not necessarily because I didn't see it," Ms Potter-Bancroft replied. The nurse admitted she had not looked at the hospital's pediatric sepsis pathway when assessing Pippa. But she denied the toddler met the criteria or required a rapid response. The courtroom was packed with Pippa's family and friends who travelled to Sydney for the inquest. Outside court, Ms White described them as "Pip's army" who were all equally broken and shattered. The inquest continues. Almost three years after their critically ill toddler's "preventable" and tragic hospital death, her family wants to light a fire of change. Pippa Mae White died from sepsis in June 2022, weeks before her third birthday, after being transferred to Orange Hospital in the NSW central west. "It is very evident to us that our daughter Pippa should not have died," her mother Annah White said on Monday outside an inquest into the girl's tragic death. The inquest, resuming this week, has heard of multiple healthcare failures including understaffing, a lack of training, missed opportunities for escalation and a dismissal of her concerns as a parent, Ms White said. She took Pippa to hospital in Cowra on June 12, about three days after she began experiencing a high temperature, vomiting and diarrhoea. Eventually transferred to Orange, an experienced pediatrician believed Pippa was "getting better" after reading notes from a doctor at Cowra. But Ms White testified that at the time her daughter was "lethargic" and vomiting fluids given to her. At Orange Base Hospital, tests revealed the toddler had pneumonia with a complete white-out of her left lung. But further delays occurred before she suffered two cardiac arrests and died about 12.30pm on June 13. Speaking besides a portrait of her daughter wearing a dress of her favourite colour, yellow, Ms White asked those within the packed courtroom on Monday to consider Pippa as someone in their life they loved dearly. "Now, imagine this tragic death occurred to your Pippa," she said. "How does that make you feel? Hold onto that feeling. "I hope hearing about Pippa's last moments during this inquest lights a fire deep inside you to fight for change - because your Pippas are still alive." The family has suggested mandatory sepsis training, better resourcing of emergency departments and a system for patient, family or carer escalation such as Queensland's Ryan's Rule or Western Australia's Aishwarya's Care Call. Ryan Saunders died of an undiagnosed streptococcal infection in 2007, with his parents feeling their vocal concerns about his condition were not acted on in time by Rockhampton hospital staff. Parental advocacy not being acted upon was also raised after two-year-old Joe Massa died of a cardiac arrest at Sydney's Northern Beaches Hospital in September. He was wrongly triaged and waited two hours for a hospital bed, his parents say. Seven-year-old Aishwarya Aswath died of sepsis on Easter Saturday 2021, hours after presenting to the Perth Children's Hospital emergency department with a fever and unusually cold hands. Her parents had pleaded with clinicians to escalate care. Pippa's inquest on Monday heard from the registered nurse who triaged the toddler at Cowra hospital and noted she had a very high heart rate. Nikota Potter-Bancroft said she put this down to Pippa's anxiety because she seemed upset and did not want the hospital staff to touch her. She was shown a phone video taken of the toddler struggling to breath and grunting 10 minutes before her assessment. Ms Potter-Bancroft said she did not remember seeing Pippa in that way. "Don't you accept that if she was breathing in that manner ... that was a serious failure on your part not to notice that?" the Whites' barrister Richard O'Keefe SC asked. "Not necessarily because I didn't see it," Ms Potter-Bancroft replied. The nurse admitted she had not looked at the hospital's pediatric sepsis pathway when assessing Pippa. But she denied the toddler met the criteria or required a rapid response. The courtroom was packed with Pippa's family and friends who travelled to Sydney for the inquest. Outside court, Ms White described them as "Pip's army" who were all equally broken and shattered. The inquest continues.
7NEWS
21-05-2025
- 7NEWS
Queensland girl Elvie Luik, 13, faces leukaemia fight
For most youngsters, turning 13 marks a new and exciting chapter in their lives — the start of the teenage years and the transition from childhood to becoming an adult, and all that goes with it. When Elvie Luik turned 13 last month, she celebrated the milestone at Movie World and Wet'n'Wild with her family. But over the Easter weekend the Queensland teenager began to feel sick with headaches, vomiting and lethargy. Know the news with the 7NEWS app: Download today Doctors diagnosed Elvie with a mild infection, telling her mother Rosie the illness should resolve itself in about a week with some rest. But Elvie did not get better and Rosie had a gut feeling something more serious was wrong. Her intuition was confirmed when another emergency hospital visit revealed the young girl had leukaemia. Doctors had never seen a white cell count so high. The mother and daughter have already been through a lot. Rosie fell seriously ill after giving birth to Elvie, developing an infection that almost killed her and put her in hospital for three months. Now Elvie faces her own fight for life. Rosie Luik, 40, and her daughter Elvie, 13. Credit: Supplied Rosie, 40, originally thought her daughter had picked up a simple, common illness from someone at one of the theme parks. 'She didn't really have a very high temperature or anything like that so we thought maybe we'll just keep her home for a few days and just see how she goes,' she told For a few days Elvie's health was up and down. Some days she felt alright but others she wasn't well at all, her mother said. When Elvie felt well enough to go back to school, Rosie soon received a call from the nurse saying Elvie needed to be picked up. 'I went and picked her up and then she threw up in the back of the car and then said she was feeling a lot better,' Rosie said. But the teenager continued to vomit and complain of a bad headache, prompting Rosie to take her to emergency a few days later. Doctors said Elvie likely had viral meningitis, an infection that is usually not very serious and goes away on its own. '(They said) just go home and rest for seven to 10 days and she'll hopefully get better,' Rosie said. 'So I took her home and she just, she just wasn't getting better.' Elvie's symptoms continued and, the day after Mother's Day, Rosie decided enough was enough. 'There's something else going on here,' she recalled thinking. Rosie drove her daughter back to the emergency department where the young girl underwent a blood test and an MRI. The results worried doctors. 'By the time we got back from the MRI, the doctor came in and said 'I need to do another blood test. Her white cell count is impossible, that's impossible to have that high of a white cell count. So, I'm just doing another test',' Rosie said. Elvie was diagnosed with leukaemia the day after Mother's Day this year. Credit: Supplied Soon after, the oncology team came to visit. With Rosie's husband listening on the phone, the family were told Elvie had leukaemia. She was declared a medical emergency and was whisked away to the paediatric ICU. Rosie said receiving her daughter's shocking diagnosis was completely overwhelming and numbing. Explaining what having leukaemia meant to Elvie was just as bad. 'It was the most heartbreaking experience I've ever had in my life, and to just hear the words that came out of her mouth were just awful,' she said. 'She was just like 'I want to live, you need me here, my brothers and sisters need me here'. 'She was just beside herself.' But as soon as Elvie was taken to the ICU, Rosie said something in her switched. She wasn't going anywhere. She was going to live. '(Elvie) just had this positive attitude. She's like 'It's OK mum, its' OK dad, I'm doing to beat this. I'm going to be here. I'm not going to leave you',' Rosie said. Elvie has three older siblings, all of whom have stepped up to help in the face of the life-changing news. Elvie and Rosie Luik. Credit: Supplied A traumatic postpartum Bringing Elvie into the world 13 years ago was no easy feat for Rosie. A year earlier, in 2011, Rosie had become Queensland's first altruistic surrogate when she gave birth to twins for her friend Lauren Lichtnauer. Lichtnauer had undergone 21 failed IVF treatments and four miscarriages, and was resigned to the fact she could not have children of her own. At this point, Rosie had already given birth three times. In 2016 the surrogacy story made headlines when 60 Minutes revealed Lichtnauer had — against all odds — become pregnant just weeks before Rosie was due to give birth to the twins. That same year, it was also revealed Rosie had almost died after giving birth to Elvie. After the twins were born, Rosie developed a severe infection. She eventually recovered and quickly fell pregnant with her own child — Elvie. But just weeks after Elvie was born in 2012, Rosie fell sick again and had to have an emergency hysterectomy. She then developed peritonitis, a life-threatening infection that causes inflammation of the abdomen and pelvic lining. Rosie spent the next three months in hospital fighting for her life before eventually making a full recovery, again. Elvie with her three older siblings. Credit: Supplied 'The most beautiful soul' Elvie is currently undergoing chemotherapy, with her prognosis at this stage unclear. Despite this she has remained as positive as ever. 'I think she's trying to be strong for everyone and she's just the most beautiful soul,' Rosie said. 'That's really shining through in this, like she's just trying to take it one step at a time and just be as positive and see the joy and when (the doctors) say 'Great job, Elvie, you've done really well' she's really proud of herself.' A GoFundMe has been set up to help Elvie and the family, with Rosie and her husband both cutting back on work to help look after their daughter. Rosie said she's been overwhelmed by the response and all the love and support the family has received. 'We're just so grateful and we can't thank people enough,' she said. 'I mean (with) the surrogacy, being in the media with that was a little bit hard but our whole family unit ... everything we're about is helping people and being there for other people and this is just showing how much of a special person Elvie is, and how she's touched so many people.'
ABC News
05-05-2025
- ABC News
Pope Francis's popemobile to be converted into medical clinic for children in Gaza
One of Pope Francis's Popemobiles is being transformed into a mobile health clinic for children in the Gaza Strip, fulfilling one of the late pontiff's final wishes, according to the Vatican's official media outlet. The vehicle, used by Francis during his 2014 visit to the Holy Land, is being kitted out with diagnostic and emergency medical equipment to help young patients in the Palestinian enclave. Pope Francis, who died last month, entrusted the initiative to the Catholic aid organisation Caritas Jerusalem in the months before his death, Vatican News said on Sunday. Pope Francis used the vehicle, seen here at the Vatican, during his 2014 visit to the Holy Land. ( Reuters: Stefano Rellandini ) "This is a concrete, life-saving intervention at a time when the health system in Gaza has almost completely collapsed," Peter Brune, secretary-general of Caritas Sweden, which is supporting the project, told Vatican News. "With the vehicle, we will be able to reach children who today have no access to healthcare — children who are injured and malnourished." Photo shows A man in religious garb sitting in front of a red curtain, looking on As he glided around St Peter's Square in his Popemobile on Sunday, the fact he was 88 and had just spent several weeks in hospital somehow seemed a distant memory. Then everything changed. The open-sided vehicle, designed to allow the pontiff to greet crowds of well-wishers, has been transferred to Caritas Jerusalem and will head to Gaza when a humanitarian corridor is opened. The mobile unit will be equipped with rapid infection tests, vaccines, diagnostic tools, and suture kits, and staffed by medical personnel. Caritas plans to deploy the clinic to communities without access to functioning healthcare facilities once humanitarian access to Gaza is feasible. "It's not just a vehicle," Mr Brune added. " It's a message that the world has not forgotten about the children in Gaza. " Gaza has a tiny Christian community and the Vatican has said Francis used to call the Holy Family Church in Gaza on an almost daily basis for much of the war, which started in October 2023 when Hamas militants launched the October 7 attack. Francis had a number of Popemobiles, with the converted Mitsubishi used in the 2014 visit to Israel and the Palestinian Territories staying in the region following his return to the Vatican. "This vehicle represents the love, care and closeness shown by His Holiness for the most vulnerable, which he expressed throughout the crisis," Anton Asfar, the secretary-general of Caritas Jerusalem, said. A conclave to elect a new pope Israel resumed major operations across Gaza on March 18 amid political deadlock over how to build on a two-month ceasefire in its war against Hamas. On Monday, Israeli officials claimed that the nation's security cabinet had The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Sunday that at least 2,436 people had been killed since Israel resumed operations on March 18, bringing its overall death toll from the war to 52,535. Hamas's attack on October 7, 2023, resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to tallies based on official figures. AFP/Reuters
