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The city of Valencia After surviving a five-week, potentially fatal case of pneumonia, Pope Francis made a surprise visit.
To his favorite basilica on his way home from the hospital on Sunday, marking the start of two months of recommended rest and recuperation.
Francis, with nasal tubes to provide him with extra oxygen, was seen in the front passenger seat of the motorcade that carried the 88-year-old pope as it entered Vatican City via the Perugino gate.
Francis made a little detour on the way home from Gemelli Hospital to take him to the basilica of St. Mary Major, where he usually goes.
To pray after a visit abroad and where his favorite icon of the Madonna is situated. Instead of exiting the vehicle, Francis gave the cardinal a bouquet of flowers.
To put in front of the Salus populi Romani icon, a wood-framed artwork in the Byzantine style that is highly regarded by Romans. After being brought out onto the balcony above the main entrance,
Francis thanked the throng and gave a thumbs up before departing the hospital. To say farewell, hundreds had assembled on a bright Sunday morning.
“This lady with the yellow flowers is visible to me. “Brava!” said Francis, looking fat and exhausted. Before being brought back inside, he made a feeble sign of the cross.
“Papa Francesco” and “Viva il papa!” were chanted by the audience, which included patients who had been carried outside to see his fleeting presence.
He requires two months of rest and recuperation, doctors warned at a press conference on Saturday night, when they announced his scheduled discharge.
During this time, he should avoid straining himself or meeting large crowds of people. However, experts said that he should ultimately be able to return to all of his regular activities.
After the longest hospital stay of his 12-year pontificate and the second-longest in recent papal history, Francis’ return home was a real relief.
To the Vatican and Catholic faithful, who had been worried about Francis’s survival after 38 days of medical ups and downs. “Today I feel a great joy,” said Dr. Rossella Russomando,
A Salerno physician who visited Gemelli on Sunday but did not treat Francis. “It is the demonstration that all our prayers, all the rosary prayers from all over the world, brought this grace.”
Pope is glad to return home. As they do throughout the year, pilgrims gathered at St. Peter’s Basilica on Vatican Sunday to take part in the 2025 Holy Year.
As Francis’ hospital welcome was being carried live on large TV screens in the area, they poured into St. Peter’s area and made their way through the Holy Door in groups.
At the Domus Santa Marta, the Vatican hotel next to the basilica, where Francis resides in a two-room suite on the second floor, no special accommodations have been made.
Additional oxygen and round-the-clock medical care will be available to Francis as required, but his personal doctor, Dr. Luigi Carbone,
Expressed the expectation that as his lungs heal, Francis would need less and less help breathing. Francis will need to take oral medicine for a considerable amount of time.
To treat the fungal infection in his lungs and to maintain his respiratory and physical therapy, even though the pneumonia infection has been completely cured.
“For three or four days he’s been asking when he can go home, so he’s very happy,” Carbone said. Two situations that might be fatal After a bout of bronchitis worsened,
The Argentine pope, who has chronic lung illness and had part of one lung removed as a young man, was taken to Gemelli on February 14.
After diagnosing a complicated respiratory tract illness caused by bacteria, viruses, and fungi, doctors quickly discovered that the patient had pneumonia in both lungs.
After receiving two blood transfusions, the symptoms of anemia, low blood platelets, and the beginning of renal failure were all alleviated, according to blood tests.
The most significant setbacks started on February 28 when Francis had a severe episode of coughing and vomited,
Necessitating the adoption of a noninvasive mechanical ventilation mask to assist with breathing. Doctors had to manually aspirate “copious” volumes of mucus from.
His lungs when he had two additional respiratory crises a few days later. At that time, he started sleeping with the ventilation mask at night to assist his lungs remove the fluid buildup.
He never lost consciousness and was never intubated. According to the doctors, he has always been cooperative and aware,
But given a natural decrease of appetite, he has likely lost some weight. “Sadly, there was a time when a lot of people were speculating.
That he may not survive. Mario Balsamo, who owns the coffee shop in front of Gemelli, stated, “And it was painful for us.” “Instead, today with the discharge, we are very happy that.
He is well and we hope he will recover soon and will recover his strength.” “I am still alive!” Not many patients who suffer such a serious case of double pneumonia survive,
Much less be discharged from the hospital, said Dr. Sergio Alfieri, the medical and surgical head at Gemelli who oversaw Francis’ medical staff.
He said that during the two severe respiratory crises, Francis’ life was in danger twice and that the pope at the moment naturally lost his normally lighthearted demeanor.
However, we asked him how he was feeling one morning when we went to listen to his lungs. His response, ‘I’m still alive,’ let us know he was well and had regained his sense of humor,” he recalled.
Francis’s lungs and respiratory muscles were damaged, and Alfieri stated that he was still having difficulty speaking.
However, he projected that his voice will soon return to normal and added that such issues were common, particularly in elderly individuals.
No appointments have been confirmed as of yet. Matteo Bruni, the Vatican spokesperson, refused to confirm any forthcoming activities,
Such as Francis’ participation in Easter services at the end of the month or a planned visit with King Charles III on April 8.
However, Carbone expressed his hope that Francis will recover sufficiently to attend a significant ecumenical anniversary celebration in Turkey at the end of May.
In addition, Francis is making his second visit to the Vatican during Holy Year, a festival that takes place once every 25 years and.
Is expected to attract over 30 million pilgrims to Rome this year. Vatican authorities believe the pope’s absence hasn’t had a major effect.
On the number of anticipated pilgrims coming, despite the fact that he has already missed several Jubilee audiences and is certain to miss many more.
The only lengthier hospital stay was that of St. John Paul II, who was admitted to Gemelli for 55 days in 1981 to get minor surgery and treatment for an infection.
