16 APRIL 2005, Page 23

Anything but simple

From Chris Wright Sir: Dr Adrian Steele (Letters, 9 April) tells us that the Pope ‘could have been kept alive ... by the simple means of attaching him to an artificial ventilator’. Attaching someone to an artificial ventilator and keeping them alive for a prolonged period is anything but simple. I’m not even sure the Pope died of ventilatory failure septic shock seems more likely to me. If this is the case, then ventilation has little to do with the outcome.

Chris Wright

Melbourne, Australia