He Pope Francisco He was discharged this Friday and returned to Vatican to continue his recovery, after having undergone surgery at the Gemelli hospital in Rome for an abdominal hernia on June 7.
The pontiff left the main door of the hospital at 8:00 am (6:00 GMT) in a wheelchair and a few dozen people were waiting for him, in addition to the media.
I feel great sorrow for the death of migrants, including many children, in the shipwreck that occurred in the Aegean Sea. We must do everything possible so that migrants fleeing war and poverty do not find death while they search for a future of hope.
— Pope Francis (@Pontifex_es) June 16, 2023
“Thank you for what you do,” he told reporters, and joked about his health: “I’m still alive.” Asked for a few words about the new tragedy of migrants in the Ionian Sea, the pope said: “so much, so much pain.”
The pope, who smiled at everyone, was accompanied to the car by the surgeon who operated on his abdominal hernia and also in July 2021 on the colon, Sergio Alfieri.
Health of Francis
It is the third time that the pope has been admitted to the Roman hospital, since he was also hospitalized for three nights at the end of March for “acute pneumonia” and was operated on in that same Roman hospital on July 4, 2021 in the colon and given discharged after 10 days followed by a slow recovery.
This Thursday, the Pope thanked all the Gemelli staff for their attention and visited the Pediatric Oncology and Pediatric Neurosurgery department, where some children are hospitalized who have conveyed their love to him in recent days through numerous letters, drawings and messages wishing him speedy recovery.
Alfieri said at a press conference on Saturday that the pope’s postoperative period was good, but that he had been advised against celebrating the Angelus publicly from the hospital to avoid efforts that would jeopardize the healing of the mesh that has been placed on the wall. abdominal.
He also stressed that “the Pope has not had any type of heart problem or suffered a heart attack” and explained that two months ago he had a small problem (pneumonia) “as any 86-year-old person can have but he has practically no type of treatment, the only problem in the knee”.
The medical team had advised him to remain hospitalized for his full recovery for at least this entire week, but Francisco decided to be released on Friday to continue his recovery in the Vatican.
The Vatican had canceled all the pope’s activities until June 18, maintaining the rest of the acts for the following days. The president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and that of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, have already announced a trip to Rome to meet the pontiff next week.
With information from Efe.
