The pope had approved the procedure, which the Vatican characterized as elective - underscoring that it was not done as an emergency measure.
I have never heard of an elective vent proceedure on someone his age, unless of course the election was between the vent and death.
From this article:
When you do a tracheotomy and you decide to do this operation, it is for a longer-term thing. No one knows that the tracheotomy will be permanent, but we're talking about leaving the device in for some time not only to secure the airway, but to allow doctors to do something they call pulmonary cleaning, actually cleaning the lungs. ...