Daniel del Castillo González
At 3:30 p.m. on Saturday October 17th, Pope Leo XIV walked out of Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on his own. Five days after his operation, he is heading back to the Vatican.
GFX
Based on the blood tests and chest X-ray, and following an assessment of his clinical condition, the Holy Father has been deemed fit for discharge.
In the corridors and outside the hospital, the pope greeted medical staff and children from the oncology unit, including a girl who has become a friend of his.
Her name is Varvara. She’s 13 and from Ukraine. She had met the pope once before, and after undergoing treatment and overcoming a tumor, she wanted to come to Gemelli to share the news with him.
She gave him two gifts: a framed photograph of their embrace and a doll with the image of Leo XIV. It was inspired by the stuffed animal that accompanied her when she fled Ukraine.
Pope Leo has already started working again. He spoke by phone with Vladimir Putin to call for a humanitarian truce in Ukraine’s Kherson region.
He's also kept his sense of humor. During his week in the hospital, Roma and Real Madrid faced off in a soccer match. Leo XIV joked that Robert Prevost supports Madrid, but the pope has to support Roma.
The discharge came ahead of October 20, the date originally set by the Holy See. Surgery confirmed that the nodule was a pulmonary adenocarcinoma, a type of cancer.
