Pope ‘is doing very well,’ says Doctor Sergio Alfieri

Dr. Sergio Alfieri was the coordinator of the medical team that looked after the Pope at the Gemelli Polyclinic during his 38-day hospitalization. When interviewed by the Italian newspaper, he noted a clear improvement in his patient.

Commenting on Francis' first public appearance on Sunday, April 6, two weeks after his return to the Vatican, the doctor says he seemed “alert, present, in good spirits.” And he explained that the flow of his oxygen supply, evident because of the nasal cannulas he was wearing, was “very low.”

Dr. Alfieri reminded the press that when the Pope was discharged from the hospital on March 23, he was “not yet very well.”

Now, he says, the head of the Catholic Church “is no longer ill; he is convalescent.” His 10-minute public appearance and encounter with the people are “a sign that makes us a little more optimistic and confident,” he said.

The doctor emphasized that the Pontiff's appearance was “a planned surprise” and that it was the Pope himself who had “constructed” this sequence. In a wheelchair and on oxygen, the Argentinian Pontiff showed “that he isn’t hiding the signs of his fragility,” he remarked.

And he added, “Pope Francis could’ve removed the cannulas if he had wanted to, but he wanted to keep them.”

According to Alfieri, Pope Francis “couldn’t have made a better entrance: by surprise, in St. Peter's Square, on the Jubilee Day of the Sick.”

It’s an initiative that confirms “his great intelligence” and sends a clear message: “The Pope is back, at home, in St. Peter's Square.”

The doctor said he still hopes that Francis will comply with the rest of his recovery — estimated at two months.