The Pope returns home after a 5 -week hospital for pneumonia – National

Weak and fragile Pope Francis He returned home to the Vatican from the hospital on Sunday after surviving a five -day, dangerous life -threatening pneumonia, which he surprised stopped in his favorite basilica on the way home before the beginning of two months of prescribed rest and recovery.

The motorcycle Karada, which transported the 88-year-old Pope, entered the Perugino Gate into the Vatican, and Francis was seen in the passenger seat that wore nasal pipes to give him extra oxygen.

While traveling home from Gemelli Hospital, Francis gently turned to bring him in the Basilica of St. Mary Mary, where his favorite Madonone icon is located and where he always goes to pray after a foreign visit. Francis did not get out of the car, but handed the Cardinal a bouquet of flowers he put in front of the Salus Populi novels, a Byzantine style painting on the wood respected Romans.

Before leaving the hospital, Francis raised his thumb and admitted the crowd after pulling on the balcony to the balcony overlooking the main entrance. Hundreds of people gathered on a great Sunday morning to say goodbye.

“I see this woman with yellow flowers. Lock!” Said tired and swollen Francis. He gave a weak sign of the cross before returning inside.

The song “Viva Il Pope!” Pope Francesco also broke out of the crowd, involving patients who were on wheels just to catch his short appearance.

The doctors, who announced the planned edition at a press conference on Saturday night, said he needed two months of vacation and renovation, during which he should refrain from meeting large groups of people or striving. But they said that in the end he should be able to continue all his usual activities.

His return home, after the longest hospitalization of his 12-year-old papacy and the second longest in recent papal history, brought tangible relief to the Vatican and Catholic believers who were eagerly followed by 38 days of medical ups and falls and wondering if Francis would make him.

“I feel great joy today,” said Dr. Rossella Russomando, a Salerno doctor who did not treat Francis, but was in Gemelli on Sunday. “The demonstration is that all our prayers, all the prayers of the Rosary from all over the world, have brought this grace.”

In the Vatican on Sunday, the pilgrims poured as well as the whole year at St. Peter’s Basilica to participate in the Sveta year 2025. They ran into St. Peter’s Square and progressed through the Holy Gate in groups, while the large TV screens on the square were involved in the broadcast of the Franciscan Live Hospital.

No special arrangements were carried out at the Domus Santa Marta Hotel, the Vatican Hotel next to the Basilica where Francis lives in a two -bedroom apartment on the second floor. Francis will have access to additional oxygen and 24-hour medical care as needed, although his personal doctor, Dr. Luigi Carbone, said that he hoped that Francis would progressively need less and less breathing while his lungs were recovering.

While the pneumonia infection has been successfully treated, Francis will still take oral drugs for a long time to treat fungal infection in the lungs and continue respiratory and physical physiotherapy.

“For three or four days he asked when he could go home, so he’s very happy,” Carbone said.

The Argentine pope, which has a chronic lung disease and had a part of one lung removed as a young man, was admitted to Gemelli on February 14 after the worsening bronchitis.

Doctors first diagnosed the complex infection of bacterial, viral and fungal respiratory tract, and shortly thereafter, pneumonia in both lungs. Blood tests showed signs of anemia, low blood platelet blood and the beginning of kidney failure, and all later got rid of after two blood transfusion.

The most serious failures began on February 28, when Francis experienced acute cough and inhaled vomiting, demanding the use of non -invasive mechanical ventilation masks to help him breathe. A few days later, he suffered two more respiratory crises, which caused doctors to manually aspirate “abundant” amounts of mucus from the lungs, at which time he began sleeping with a ventilation mask at night to help his lungs clean the accumulation of fluid.

He was never intubated and at no point lost consciousness. Doctors reported that he had always remained awake and cooperative, although they say he probably lost a little weight given the natural loss of appetite.

“Unfortunately yes, there was a moment when many said he might not have succeeded. And that was painful for us,” said Mario Balsamo, owner of the cafe in front of Gemelli. “Instead, today we are emptying very happy that he is good and hopefully he will recover soon and that he will recover strength.”

Dr. Sergio Alfieri, a medical and surgical head of Gemelli who coordinated the Francis medical team, stressed that not all patients who develop such a serious double pneumonia, are even less released from the hospital, have survived. He said that Francis’ life was in danger twice, during two acute respiratory crises, and that the Pope at that time was understandably lost his typical good sense of humor.

“But one morning we went to listen to his lungs and asked him how he was going. When he replied,” I’m still alive, “we knew he was well and brought back his good humor,” he said.

Alfieri confirmed that Francis still had problems with a distance due to the damage to the lungs and respiratory muscles. But he said such problems were normal, especially in older patients, and predicted that his voice would eventually return to normal.

The Vatican spokesman, Matteo Bruni, refused to confirm any upcoming events, including the scheduled audience on April 8 with the end of April King Charles III or Francis’s participation in Easter services. But Carbone said he hoped that Francis would be good enough to travel to Turkey at the end of May to participate in an important ecumenical anniversary.

Francis is also returning to the Vatican in the Holy Year Forest, the celebration of the once and every quarter is scheduled to attract more than 30 million pilgrims to Rome this year. The Pope has already missed several jubilee audiences and will probably miss a few more, but Vatican officials say his absence has not significantly influenced the number of expected pilgrims to come.

Only St. John Paul II recorded longer hospitalization in 1981, when he spent 55 days in Gemelli for less surgery and treatment of infection.

The Giada Zampo Presscriated Presses in Rome and Colleen Barry in Soave, Italy contributed to this report.