Pope Francis returns to Vatican after 38 days in hospital

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00:00was after 38 days. I mean, the last time anyone saw him publicly was on the 14th of February. So

00:06to see him, even though it was very brief, was significant. I mean, hundreds of people had

00:12gathered at Rome's Gemelli Hospital. He appeared in a balcony, not on his 10th floor, but it was

00:18lower down. He was in his wheelchair. We saw a tired-looking Pope Francis. His face appeared to

00:27be slightly bloated as well. He thanked everybody as he appeared at the balcony and specifically

00:34highlighted a woman he saw in the crowd who was carrying a bouquet of yellow flowers and he said

00:41that was great to see. He also weakly used his hands to make the sign of a cross to bless the

00:49people that were gathered there. So really a very significant time to see Pope Francis after so long

00:56since his 12-year paper. See, it's the longest that no one has seen or heard from him. Clearly,

01:03he has suffered a great deal having to deal with that double pneumonia, as you mentioned.

01:09The doctors gave a briefing to journalists on Saturday and we understand that during his period

01:16in hospital, he faced two incidents where he was in very critical condition and his life was in

01:25danger, is what they told us. But what we do know now is that he has been discharged with the idea

01:31that he's been prescribed two months of rest, rehabilitation and convalescence back in the

01:37Vatican at the Casa Santa Marta residence, which is where he usually stays. He no longer has pneumonia.

01:44The polymicrobial respiratory chest infection that he's been facing is still there, so he's

01:51taking some meds to deal with some of it and he will continue with physical and respiratory

01:57physiotherapy while he's in there. But definitely, they say, it's better for him to be at home than

02:02to be at the hospital where, of course, he can be exposed to other infections. In fact, they've told

02:08him to avoid large crowds or groups of people that may have young children who are carrying

02:14infections. Now, he has stopped the non-mechanical ventilation that he was using at night, but he

02:21will continue using oxygen with those nasal tubes as and when necessary. But we have seen him stop

02:28using it. He did not appear at the balcony using them when he was speaking. But clearly, we saw him

02:34weak. They said he will have to work on getting his voice back up to par as well. Of course, he's

02:41also, they say, lost weight, but they are confident

02:45that we've seen improvements in the last two weeks and the improvements will continue.

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