Pope Francis will be discharged this Sunday after almost 40 days at the Gemelli Hospital in Rome

Dr. Sergio Alfieri, director of the Medical-Surgical Department of the Gemelli Polyclinic Hospital, confirmed that this Sunday will discharge Pope Francis, after almost 40 days admitted to the Gemelli Hospital.

“The good news, which I imagine waiting for everyone, is that tomorrow the Holy Father receives the discharge. Tomorrow the Holy Father returns to Santa Marta,” said the doctor in the second press conference since the Pontiff was hospitalized five weeks ago. The first took place on February 21, just seven days after admission, when he said that the Holy Father was not out of danger.

Instead, the tone used this Saturday has been completely different. However, the toilets warned that the Holy Father, 88, with a pathology of chronic bronchitis from which he will no longer recover, will not be able to immediately retake the work rate he had before his hospitalization.

“The Holy Father is improving, so we hope that in a short time he can resume his normal activity,” said Dr. Luigi Carbone, deputy director of the Department of Health and Hygiene of the State of the Vatican.

The toilets who have attended it in the Gemelli during these almost six weeks explained that they must partially continue with pharmacological therapy, in addition to performing the motor and rehabilitation exercises that has already been practicing in the hospital.

The decision of the medical discharge arrives after two weeks of stability, in which Pope Francis has not suffered any respiratory crisis.

Alfieri made it clear that, at this time, the Holy Father is not completely cured of all the polymicrobial species present in the infection of the respiratory tract caused by bilateral pneumonia.

“There are some bacteria that have been defeated, some viruses whose viral load has been reduced (…) and some fungi whose presence has decreased, but it will take a long time, many months, to be eradicated,” said Alfieri.

In addition, he explained that his total elimination “will still take time.” For that reason, although Pope Francis is discharged this Sunday, he must spend at least two months of convalescence, during which “he cannot immediately resume his work activities with groups of people or assume important commitments.”

For Alfieri, Pope Francis can fully resume his agenda “once he has completed the prescribed convalescence and the expected clinical improvements can be recorded.” The date that doctors handle is the end of May.

For this period of convalescence, the spaces of the Santa Marta house, its residence in the Vatican.

“The Holy Father does not need much; he needs oxygen, like all patients who are discharged with pneumonia, and we hope that he can soon dispense with his daily routine,” said Alfieri, who said that a hospital is the worst place for a convalescence, since it is where more infections contract.

Articulating words problems

He also confirmed that, due to the prolonged use of medical devices, such as the mechanical ventilation mask and the nasal cannulas to help him breathe, the Pope has difficulties in articulating words.

“The speech recovery time is difficult to specify, but, seeing the improvements, we hope it is short,” he said.

He also said that Pope Francis has developed diabetes, but that the blood sugar level has been corrected.

The Pontiff entered on February 14 at the hospital with acute respiratory failure due to a polymicrobial infection, which resulted in severe bilateral pneumonia.

“During his hospitalization, the clinical state of the Holy Father presented two very critical episodes in which his life was in danger,” said Alfieri. However, he pointed out that he was never intubated and that he always remained alert and oriented.

Pope Francis will bless the faithful before leaving the hospital

This Friday, the Vatican announced that Pope Francis will look tomorrow, Sunday, to the window of his apartment in the Gemelli, in what will be his first public appearance since his hospitalization almost 40 days ago and, after that, he will leave the medical center.

His appearance to greet the faithful and teach the apostolic blessing will be a long -awaited moment. It will occur shortly after 12 noon, since the Angelus will not be proclaimed verbally by the Pope, but the written text, prepared by him before, will be distributed, as in the five previous Sundays in which he has been hospitalized.