By Joshua McElwee
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) -Pope Francis left Rome’s Gemelli hospital on Sunday following a five-week keep to be handled for pneumonia, making his first public look since February 14 by waving to well-wishers from a balcony moments earlier than he was discharged.
Francis, 88, went to hospital on February 14 with a extreme respiratory an infection that grew to become probably the most severe well being disaster of his 12-year papacy.
The pope’s medical doctors stated on Saturday it could nonetheless take “a number of time” for his getting older physique to totally heal, and stated they’d prescribed the pontiff an additional two months of relaxation on the Vatican.
A automobile carrying Francis left the hospital shortly after midday on Sunday, and was accompanied via Rome by a convoy of police autos.
The pope appeared on a balcony on the hospital simply earlier than leaving. Utilizing a wheelchair, as he has for a number of years, he smiled and waved at a gaggle of well-wishers gathered exterior.
The pope, whose face regarded swollen, appeared just for a couple of moments. He spoke briefly, with a feeble voice, to thank one of many members of the group under, who had introduced yellow flowers.
Francis had solely been seen by the general public as soon as earlier than throughout his hospital keep, in a photograph the Vatican launched final week, displaying the pontiff at prayer in a hospital chapel.
Within the moments earlier than the pontiff’s look on Sunday, the group of lots of of well-wishers known as out for the pope, chanting “Francis, Francis, Francis”.
(Reporting by Joshua McElwee; Further reporting by Giulio Piovaccari;Enhancing by Elaine Hardcastle and Helen Popper)
Source link