'He wanted to die at home': Pope’s doctor recounts Francis’s final moments

Dr Alfieri was alerted at 5.30am on Monday by Francis’s health care assistant, Massimiliano Strappetti, that Francis had been stricken and needed to be taken to the hospital

The pope’s doctor has recounted his final moments. Picture: Ahn Young-joon/AP

Pope Francis’s doctor found the pontiff with his eyes open and breathing normally, but unresponsive when he was called to the Vatican early on Monday morning, the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported on Thursday.

Dr Sergio Alfieri co-ordinated Francis’s five-week hospital treatment for double pneumonia and continued to oversee the pope’s treatment after the pontiff returned to the Vatican on March 23 for two months of rest to allow a full recovery.