Pope has pneumonia in both lungs

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Pope Francis was discharged from the hospital Sunday after making a brief public appearance for the first time in more than five weeks, waving to a crowd from his window at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital where he had been hospitalized with pneumonia in both lungs.

The pontiff, 88, smiled and greeted the cheering crowds waiting outside for a glimpse at the leader of the Catholic Church, who appeared on the balcony in a wheelchair, which he has used for several years.

“Thank you all,” he said into a microphone, before waving again.

Francis appeared to make the sign of the cross to the crowd before he was taken back into his room.

Minutes later, he could be seen waving from the back seat of a car as a convoy left the hospital. On his way back to the Vatican, the Pope stopped in the center of Rome to pray at the Papal Basilica, before arriving at the Vatican.

The Pope did not offer his usual weekly prayer, but the Vatican released a text prepared by the Pontiff Sunday.

“In this long period of hospitalization, I have had the opportunity to experience the patience of the Lord,” Francis said in the statement, “which I also see reflected in the tireless care of doctors and healthcare workers, as well as in the devotion and hopes of the families of the sick.”

For the remainder of the text, the pope addressed some of the world's conflicts, welcoming a peace agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and saying he was saddened by "the resumption of heavy Israeli bombing on the Gaza Strip."

During his hospitalization, Francis had continued his practice of near-nightly calls to the Catholic parish in the war-torn enclave.

He is expected to return home to Casa Santa Marta in Vatican City. Francis will need a further two months of rest once he returns to the Vatican, the head of his medical team said Saturday, and his doctors said it would take “a lot of time” for his aging body to fully heal.

Pope Francis came so close to death at one point during his 38-day fight in hospital against pneumonia that his doctors considered ending treatment so he could die in peace, the head of the pope's medical team said.

After a breathing crisis on February 28 that involved Francis nearly choking on his vomit, "there was a real risk he might not make it," said Sergio Alfieri, a physician at Rome's Gemelli hospital.

"We had to choose if we would stop there and let him go, or to go forward and push it with all the drugs and therapies possible, running the highest risk of damaging his other organs," Alfieri told Italy's Corriere della Sera in an interview published on Tuesday.

"In the end, we took this path," he said.

Alfieri had previously said that two of the crises were critical, putting Francis "in danger of his life." In the new interview, the doctor said it was the pope's personal nurse who, after the vomiting episode, instructed the medical team to keep going with treatment.

"Try everything; don't give up," came the message from Massimiliano Strappetti, the pope's nurse, as recounted by Alfieri.

"For days, we were risking damage to his kidneys and bone marrow, but we went ahead, and his body responded to the drugs and his lung infection lessened," said Alfieri.

rancis has been prescribed a further two month period of rest since leaving hospital to fully heal. It has not been madeclear how much he will be seen in public in coming weeks.

Recounting the pope's first public appearance since entering hospital, when Francis appeared on a hospital balcony to greet well-wishers on Sunday, Alfieri said that was the moment of the pope's treatment that struck him the most.

"I saw him leave the room on the 10th floor of the Gemelli dressed in white," said the doctor. "It was the emotion of seeing the man become again the pope."