A surgeon who has twice operated on Pope Francis is under investigation for falsifying hospital records.
The Italian daily La Stampa reported that Sergio Alfieri of Rome’s Gemelli Hospital is now facing an investigation at the hands of Roman prosecutors.
He is accused of signing forms in 2022 claiming he had performed surgeries when he was actually not present in the operating room.
Dr Alfieri operated on Pope Francis in 2021 and again in June of this year.
The allegedly false claims, which date to a period between July and December 2022, do not relate to any procedures Alfieri performed on Pope Francis, who has recently recovered from a bout of bronchitis.
In his only comment on the accusations so far, Dr Alfieri has said that he is “very serene”.
Dr Alfieri first operated on Francis in 2021, when he removed roughly 13 inches of the Pontiff’s large intestine to relieve what the Vatican described as a severe inflammation and narrowing of the colon.
He performed another round of surgery in June, this time on the Pope’s abdomen – to treat a diverticulosis, or bulges in the colon wall, related to the original 2021 procedure.
During the Pope’s recovery in June, Dr Alfieri delivered briefings to the press at the Gemelli with updates on the Pope’s condition, sometimes in the company of Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni.
According to media reports, the new investigation of Dr Alfieri began in February based on information provided to a unit of the Italian carabinieri, or military police, which deals with crimes against public health.
The accusation is that on several occasions, Dr Alfieri signed a hospital register taking responsibility for a surgery he didn’t actually perform.
On October 10, according to the report, DrAlfieri signed off on a surgery that took place during a time when he was actually at Rome’s Hilton Hotel attending a meeting of the Italian Surgical Society.
On December 5, 2022, he allegedly signed for a surgery that happened while he was attending an administrative meeting elsewhere in the hospital.
So far, media reports have not suggested what Dr Alfieri’s motive for allegedly falsifying the reports would have been.
A lawyer for Dr Alfieri said that the surgeon “whose personal and professional calibre is known to all, it is certain that he has always operated in full compliance with the rules”.
“When we are in a position to know the hypothesized charges and the elements on which they are based, we will, as always, have an attitude of full collaborative loyalty with the judicial authority in order to clarify every question as soon as possible,” said attorney Carlo Bonzano.
In a statement, the Gemelli Hospital, which has a room permanently reserved for the care of popes, expressed “maximum faith” in Alfieri’s “conduct and indisputable professional and human qualities”.