Rudy Giuliani was so close to death over the weekend that a priest was called to his hospital bedside and administered his last rites. Now he’s off the ventilator and talking.
The 81-year-old former New York City mayor pulled off a dramatic turnaround Monday after a terrifying 48-hour stretch that left his family and supporters fearing the worst. His primary care physician, Dr. Maria Ryan, told Fox News that Giuliani’s condition had become so bad that last rites were administered before doctors were able to stabilize him.
“He’s a fighter — the way he was yesterday in such a critical condition, he did have a priest come anoint him,” Ryan told Fox News.
By Tuesday, Giuliani was breathing on his own after being removed from a ventilator — a stunning reversal that prompted Ryan to declare he has “9 lives.”
“Mayor Rudy Giuliani is the ultimate fighter — as he has demonstrated throughout his life — and he is winning this battle,” spokesman Ted Goodman said on Monday. “His family deeply appreciates the outpouring of love and support. The mayor believes in the power of prayer, and we are feeling that strength today.”
Giuliani is recovering from severe pneumonia, a diagnosis made especially dangerous by a condition he’s carried since September 11, 2001. Goodman revealed that Giuliani developed restrictive airway disease after running toward the Twin Towers to help survivors in the immediate aftermath of the attacks — a 9/11-related illness that has complicated every respiratory battle he’s faced since.
“This condition adds complications to any respiratory illness, and the virus quickly overwhelmed his body, requiring mechanical ventilation to maintain adequate oxygen and stabilize his condition,” Goodman said.
The first signs of trouble came Friday when Giuliani hosted his online show “America’s Mayor Live” from Florida, coughing through the broadcast and telling his audience his voice was “a little under the weather.” He was hospitalized days later. By Sunday, Trump was posting prayers on Truth Social.
“Our fabulous Rudy Giuliani, a True Warrior, and the Best Mayor in the History of New York City, BY FAR, has been hospitalized, and is in critical condition,” Trump wrote. “He was right about everything. So sad!”
Giuliani remains in critical but stable condition.
It is not his first brush with death. He survived prostate cancer, spent four days hospitalized with COVID-19 in 2020, and suffered fractured vertebrae and multiple lacerations in a New Hampshire car crash in August 2025.
But America’s Mayor is still fighting.