Pope Francis has been discharged from hospital on Sunday after making his first public appearance in more than five weeks, waving from a balcony at Rome’s Gemelli hospital.
The pontiff (88) went to hospital on February 14th with a severe respiratory infection that became the most serious health crisis of his 12-year papacy.
From his hospital balcony on Sunday morning, Francis blessed the crowd of hundreds below.
The pope, whose face looked swollen, appeared only for a few moments. He spoke briefly, with a feeble voice, to thank one of the members of the crowd below, who had brought yellow flowers.
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“I see this woman with the yellow flowers. Brava!” a tired-looking Francis said. He gave a weak sign of the cross before being wheeled back inside.
“Thank you to everyone,” Francis told the crowd.
Chants of “Viva il papa!” and “Papa Francesco” erupted from the crowd.
His blessing and greeting came minutes before he was discharged from the hospital and shortly after the release of the text for his Sunday Angelus.
A car carrying Francis left the hospital shortly after noon on Sunday, and was accompanied through Rome by a convoy of police vehicles.
In the Angelus, the pope reflected on his “long period” of hospitalisation. “I have had the opportunity to experience the Lord’s patience, which I also see reflected in the tireless care of the doctors and healthcare workers, as well as in the care and hopes of the relatives of the sick,” he said.
He expressed his sadness at Israel’s renewed bombing of the Gaza Strip and called for an “immediate halt to the weapons and for the courage to resume dialogue, so that all hostages may be released and a final ceasefire reached”, while urging people to pray “for an end to wars and for peace, especially in tormented Ukraine, Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Myanmar, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.”
Dr Sergio Alfieri, who co-ordinated Francis’s medical team at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, said the pontiff will require at least two months of rest and rehabilitation as he continues recovering at the Vatican.
However, his personal doctor, Dr Luigi Carbone, said that if he continues his steady improvements to date, he should be able to resume his normal activity.
The doctors spoke at a press conference on Saturday evening in the hospital atrium, their first in-person update on the pontiff’s condition in a month.
They provided details on the severity of the infection, which he is still being treated for, and the two respiratory crises that marked the gravest threats to his life.
“When he was in really bad shape, it was difficult that he was in good spirits,” Dr Alfieri said. “But one morning we went to listen to his lungs and we asked him how he was doing. When he replied ‘I’m still alive’ we knew he was OK and had gotten his good humour back.”
Dr Alfieri confirmed that Francis was still having trouble speaking due to damage to his lungs and the time he spent on supplemental oxygen and ventilation, but he added that such problems are normal and predicted his voice will return.
“When you have a bilateral pneumonia, your lungs get damaged and the respiratory muscles are in difficulty. You lose your voice a bit, like when you speak too high,” Dr Alfieri said.
“As for all patients, young or old but especially older ones, you need time for it to come back as it was.”
The Argentinian pope, who has chronic lung disease and had part of one lung removed as a young man, was admitted to hospital after a bout of bronchitis worsened.
Doctors first diagnosed a complex bacterial, viral and fungal respiratory tract infection and then pneumonia. Blood tests showed signs of anaemia, low blood platelets and the onset of kidney failure, all of which were resolved after two blood transfusions.
The most serious setbacks began on February 28th when Francis experienced an acute coughing fit and inhaled vomit, requiring he use a non-invasive mechanical ventilation mask to help him breathe.
He suffered two more respiratory crises on March 3rd, which required doctors to manually aspirate the mucus, at which point he began sleeping with the ventilation mask at night to help his lungs clear the accumulation of fluids.
At no point did he lose consciousness, and doctors reported he always remained alert and co-operative.
Over the past two weeks, he has stabilised and registered slight improvements. He no longer needs to wear the ventilation mask at night and is cutting back his reliance on high flows of supplemental oxygen during the day.
At his home in the Santa Marta hotel, next to St Peter’s Basilica, Francis will have access to supplemental oxygen and 24-hour medical care as needed, Dr Carbone said.
“The Holy Father is improving, and we hope soon he can resume his normal activity,” the doctor added. – AP/ Reuters
