Pope John Paul II was just minutes from death last week, but twice refused to go to the hospital despite having coughing fits and gasping for each gulp of air, a Catholic magazine is reporting.
“We got him by a breath,” a medical official told Inside the Vatican, due out this week.
Another medic said, “If he had come in 10 minutes later, he would have been gone. He had a feeling he was suffocating.”
Yet when a highly placed personal aide suggested it was time to go to the hospital, the pope “shook his head decisively,” the story says.
Only after another fitful coughing episode did the pontiff relent. He was then rushed to the hospital in the same ambulance that rescued him after an assassination attempt in 1981.
The magazine’s version of events strongly contradicts the Vatican’s account of last week’s near-crisis. While the Vatican’s spokesman, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, told the media the pope’s illness was not alarming and he had a slight fever, medical experts said the flu exacerbated his pre-existing medical problems, bringing him close to death.
Yesterday, the 84-year-old leader of the world’s Catholics made his first public appearance since that dramatic near-death experience. For 10 minutes, he sat at a 10th-floor window of the Gemelli Polyclinic looking extremely weak and his shaky, hoarse voice was barely understandable as he delivered his blessing.
Also the presence of a piece of paper created some controversy. It partially covered his face; raising suspicion that the voice heard through speakers was actually a recording of the pope.
The Vatican denied this, and Navarro-Valls called it “nonsense.”
In the pope’s message to the world – read by Archbishop Leonardo Sandri – he said, “Even from here in the hospital, among other sick people to whom go my sincere best wishes, I continue to serve the church and all humanity.” His statement then thanked the many well-wishers throughout the world for their prayers.
At St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Edward Cardinal Egan twice asked parishioners yesterday to continue praying for the pope’s “speedy and complete” recovery.
“I hope he is better,” said Jamey Propsc, 59, of Atlanta, who attended Mass. “I’m not sure how bad he is, but he seems to be getting better.”
And despite the pope’s declining health, Propsc said retirement isn’t a consideration.
“It’s the way it is,” he said. “You’re there ’til the end. It’s like the Supreme Court.”
Monica Bartlett, 29, said just “because we think he’s not perfect by our cultural standards doesn’t mean he’s not capable. As long as he’s mentally sound, I don’t think there’s a reason for him to step down.”
But, Kathryn Barth, 54, of Wisconsin said she’s certain others are in command anyway.
“I really think with his Parkinson’s that others are running the church. He’s a figurehead,” she said. “I’m sad because he was a man that brought people together. He’s been a very good pope for the Catholic Church, a good leader.”