His surgeon quipped that the 86-year-old pontiff was «better than before’ the surgery. Francis smiled and waved as he left the hospital.
Pope Francis was discharged Friday from the Rome hospital where he to repair a hernia and remove painful scarring, with his surgeon saying the pontiff is now «better than before» the hospitalization.
Francis, 86, left through Gemelli Polyclinic’s main exit in a wheelchair, smiling and waving and saying «thanks» to a crowd of well-wishers, then stood up so he could get into the small Vatican car awaiting him. In the brief distance before he could reach the white Fiat 500, reporters thrust microphones practically at his face, and the pontiff seemed to bat them away, good-naturedly.
«The pope is well. He’s better than before,» Dr. Sergio Alfieri, the surgeon who performed on June 7 told reporters as the pope was driven away.
Following the surgery, Francis will be a «strong pope,» said Alfieri, who along with the crowd surged toward the exiting pontiff.
Hours after the surgery, Alfieri said the scarring, which had resulted from previous abdominal surgeries, had been increasingly causing the pope pain.
