The Gemelli became the focus of international attention during the pontificate of Pope John Paul II who , in 1981 , received emergency surgery after Mehmet Ali Ağca 's failed assassination attempt . He returned at various times , up to a few weeks before his death in 2005 . Other famous ex-patients include politicians Giulio Andreotti , Walter Veltroni and Francesco Cossiga , Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mother Teresa , theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking , priest Georg Ratzinger ( elder brother of Pope Benedict XVI ) , footballers Francesco Totti and Daniele De Rossi and Canadian filmmaker Damian Pettigrew to name a few . In June 2009 a statue of Pope John Paul II was unveiled in front of the hospital building
assassination attempt
Pope John Paul II assassination attempt
Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic