Pope Francis returned to the Policlinico Gemelli hospital in Rome on Tuesday for medical check-ups after being admitted in March for a respiratory infection. As published by the Italian agency Ansa, Francis arrived at the health center at around 10:40 in the morning and was back in the Vatican after an hour at the Center for Aging Medicine (Cemi) of the same hospital.
It is the same center in which Francisco spent three days hospitalized, at the end of March, due to acute pneumonia that raised fears that he would have to skip the long-awaited Vatican Holy Week. After three nights admitted to the tenth floor, where there are rooms reserved for the popes, the Pope reacted well to a treatment with antibiotics and even invited all those who had been by his side during his convalescence to pizza.
The Vatican for the moment has not given any official information regarding this new trip to the hospital. It is unknown if it was a scheduled visit, although the Argentine Pontiff's agenda was empty today and therefore it is very likely that it was. A few weeks ago he did have to cancel some hearings because he had a fever.
According to the Italian media, Francisco underwent some tests in the Nuclear Medicine unit that ended around 11:20 in the morning, and at 11:40 he had already left the hospital, which became known during John Paul II's long admissions as the "Vatican 3", behind the summer residence of Castel Gandolfo.
When he left the hospital on April 1, Francisco showed his good humor and joked to reporters saying: "I'm still alive, you know?" The Pontiff has been admitted twice to the Gemelli Polyclinic. The first, in July 2021, when he underwent colon surgery and removed 33 centimeters of intestine. The second, for this pneumonia. "What I've had is that I felt bad after the hearing, I didn't want to eat and I went to sleep, but I didn't lose consciousness, I just had a high fever," he explained later at a press conference on the return flight. of his trip to Hungary.
The 86-year-old Argentine pope also has problems walking due to severe knee pain, but shows no sign of wanting to slow down. The Vatican recently announced a trip to Mongolia between August 31 and September 4, which will be the first visit by a pope to this Asian country with a Buddhist majority and one of the smallest Catholic communities in the world, with only about 1,500 faithful.
