16th June, 2023
Pope Francis was released from a Rome hospital on Friday after undergoing abdominal surgery.
He waved to onlookers as he was driven away from the Gemelli Hospital, where he had surgery to prevent an intestinal obstruction.
He spoke briefly with reporters outside the hospital’s entrance. “I’m still alive,” he said, smiling, before returning to the Vatican.
His doctors stated that the operation went well and that he tolerated the general anaesthetic well. Many Catholics were concerned about the pope’s latest, urgent operation before it took place last Thursday, partly due to concerns about how well the pope would tolerate the anaesthetic.
In medical terms, he had a laparotomy.
It was the pope’s third hospitalisation in Rome, following intestinal surgery in the summer of 2021 and pneumonia earlier this year.
dpa/NAN