Caruso's health deteriorated further during the new year. He lapsed into a coma and at one point, nearly died of heart failure. He continued to experience episodes of severe pain due to the infection and underwent seven surgical procedures to drain fluid from his chest and lungs.Caruso described his illness and surgical procedures in a lengthy letter to his brother Giovanni, reprinted in Caruso, His Life in Pictures by Francis Robinson (Bramhall, 1977), p. 137. He slowly began to improve and by May 1921, he had recovered sufficiently to sail to Naples to further recuperate from the most serious of the operations, during which part of a rib had been removed. According to Dorothy, he appeared to be continuing with his recovery, but in July he allowed himself to be examined by an unhygienic local doctor. Caruso's condition began to deteriorate dramatically after that.Biographer Pierre Key attributed Caruso's decline to over-exertion as he convalesced (see p. 389), as did Francis Robinson (p. 139). Dorothy agrees with this in part, saying (p. 262) that a group of hangers-on encouraged him to go on several tiring excursions, give dinners and otherwise overexert himself. The Bastianelli brothers, eminent Italian medical practitioners, examined him and recommended that his left kidney be removed. On the morning of 1 August, Caruso and his entourage left Sorrento for the Bastianelli's clinic in Rome, but by the time they reached Naples, Caruso was running a high fever and was gravely ill. The party checked into the Hotel Vesuvio where Caruso began screaming in pain and eventually, a doctor gave him morphine to help him sleep.
Caruso's health deteriorated further during the new year. He lapsed into a coma and at one point, nearly died of heart failure. He continued to experience episodes of severe pain due to the infection and underwent seven surgical procedures to drain fluid from his chest and lungs.Caruso described his illness and surgical procedures in a lengthy letter to his brother Giovanni, reprinted in Caruso, His Life in Pictures by Francis Robinson (Bramhall, 1977), p. 137. He slowly began to improve and by May 1921, he had recovered sufficiently to sail to Naples to further recuperate from the most serious of the operations, during which part of a rib had been removed. According to Dorothy, he appeared to be continuing with his recovery, but in July he allowed himself to be examined by an unhygienic local doctor. Caruso's condition began to deteriorate dramatically after that.Biographer Pierre Key attributed Caruso's decline to over-exertion as he convalesced (see p. 389), as did Francis Robinson (p. 139). Dorothy agrees with this in part, saying (p. 262) that a group of hangers-on encouraged him to go on several tiring excursions, give dinners and otherwise overexert himself. The Bastianelli brothers, eminent Italian medical practitioners, examined him and recommended that his left kidney be removed. On the morning of 1 August, Caruso and his entourage left Sorrento for the Bastianelli's clinic in Rome, but by the time they reached Naples, Caruso was running a high fever and was gravely ill. The party checked into the Hotel Vesuvio where Caruso began screaming in pain and eventually, a doctor gave him morphine to help him sleep.