A week after undergoing abdominal surgery, Pope Francis’ recovery is going well enough that his doctors are making plans to discharge him from Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, the Vatican press office said yesterday. Source: NCR Online.
“The medical staff reports that his clinical course is proceeding smoothly, without complications, and is therefore planning to discharge him in the next few days,” Matteo Bruni, director of the Vatican press office, told reporters.
Mr Bruni’s statement came the morning after Il Fatto Quotidiano, an Italian newspaper, reported that Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, dean of the College of Cardinals, informed members of the college that Francis “is recovering well” and was likely to return to the Vatican today or tomorrow.
Francis underwent a three-hour surgery to repair a hernia on June 7. The procedure, under general anaesthesia, was performed using a surgical mesh to strengthen the repair and prevent the recurrence of a hernia. Surgeons also removed several adhesions or bands of scar tissue that had formed after previous surgeries decades ago, according to Dr Sergio Alfieri, the chief surgeon operating on the Pope.
In addition to the news about the Pope’s release from the hospital, Bruni said the Pope had rested well overnight and spent the morning working.
“Before lunch, he went to the chapel of the private apartment” the Gemelli maintains for the Popes, where he prayed “and received the Eucharist.”
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Doctors begin planning Pope’s discharge from hospital (By Cindy Wooden, CNS via NCR Online)
