Pope Francis waves from inside a car in Rome, Italy on June 1./Remo Casilli/Archyde.com
2023.04.02 Sun posted at 15:11 JST
Rome (CNN) Pope Francis, 86, was discharged from the hospital on the morning of the 1st, after being hospitalized for several days for treatment of a respiratory infection.
As he left Gemelli Hospital in Rome, he appeared to be in good health, joking that he was still alive when a CNN reporter asked him how he was feeling.
When asked if he felt anxious when he faced difficulty breathing, he said he remembered something an older man said after going through a similar illness. He divulged, “He didn’t die, but I saw death approaching. It was abomination,” he recalled.
After leaving the hospital, the pope went to the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome to pray for sick children he met while in hospital, according to the Vatican.
Pope Francis was taken to a hospital on the 29th of last month where he was diagnosed with bronchitis caused by a virus and was treated with antibiotics.
Pope Francis has a history of severe pneumonia as a young man and had a part of his lung removed. His health problems have also surfaced in recent years, and there was even a case in which he injured his right knee and had to move in a wheelchair or postpone a trip abroad. In 2021, he underwent surgery to partially remove his colon after a stricture was found in his intestines.