Half Alive

The Pope vs. his doctors

The Pope abdicate? During John Paul II's slow recovery from his shooting last summer, the rumor circulated in Europe that he was thinking of stepping down. That was hardly credible, but there is no doubt that he was a frustrated patient. So much so, TIME has learned, that at a critical juncture he stepped into the medical management of his case and overruled advice from a panel of his doctors.

On the day he was shot last May, surgeons performed a colostomy, temporarily rerouting the upper part of the large intestine to let the damaged lower part heal. The bowel was to be reconnected in a second operation in June. But John Paul developed a serious viral infection, and was too weak to undergo the needed surgery. The stalemate dragged on until late July, when his nine Italian physicians met to decide what to do.

The Pope insisted on sitting in, calling himself "a party to the problem," not "a simple object of discussion." Eight of the doctors voted against the surgery: the Pope was still too sick to risk an operation. The ninth doctor thought the reverse. John Paul went with No. 9 and ordered surgery. According to a Roman physician familiar with the discussions, the Pontiff explained, "I don't want to continue half dead and half alive." The operation was performed successfully on Aug. 5, John Paul left the hospital nine days later, and has gradually resumed his activist pontificate.

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