Pope Leo Hospital Discharge Came Sooner Than Expected

Pope Leo XIV walked out of Rome's Agostino Gemelli Hospital on Saturday, Oct. 17, smiling and waving to well-wishers as he returned to the Vatican just days after lung cancer surgery. The Pope Leo hospital discharge came sooner than Vatican planners had expected, since they had said the 71-year-old pontiff would spend about a week in the hospital.

The statement confirming the Pope Leo hospital discharge said blood tests and a chest X-ray taken that morning showed the pontiff's clinical condition allowed him to leave. The announcement came earlier than the Vatican's original estimate, which had put the post-operative hospital stay at about a week. Video from the hospital entrance showed Leo walking out without physical support, flanked by officials and security personnel, as he waved to the crowds gathered along the barriers, according to KNKX's reporting.

Before getting into his car, the pope stopped to greet several faithful who had brought him gifts, and as he was driven away he told well-wishers he was feeling better, DW reported. Daniele Franco, chairman of the board of the Gemelli University Hospital Foundation, was there to see him off. Earlier that day the pontiff had celebrated Mass in a room on the hospital's 10th floor that had been set up for worship, the second consecutive day he had done so, distributing Communion to members of the hospital's medical and nursing staff and the Vatican gendarmerie, the Vatican said.

His doctors say the recovery is ahead of schedule

Professor Stefano Margaritora told Vatican News that the pope's blood tests were completely normal and his heart function was fine, and that Leo could be fully recovered in about ten days. The Pope Leo hospital discharge still leaves questions unanswered: the Vatican has not disclosed the size of the tumor or whether the cancer had spread to nearby lymph nodes, both key to determining prognosis, USA Today reported.

Leo underwent surgery on Oct. 13, when a team removed the lower lobe of his right lung with a video-assisted technique. The operation lasted about an hour and a half, and tissue examined while he was still on the table confirmed lung adenocarcinoma, the most common form of lung cancer. The nodule had been discovered during a recent health checkup, and the pope's doctors have said the growth was small and caught early, the Vatican said.

The pope announced the coming surgery himself during his Sunday Angelus address on Oct. 11, telling the faithful that a recent checkup had found a lung nodule detected at a very early stage and described as well contained. That put his return home less than a week after the address in which he told the world about the operation. During the stay he slept in rooms adjacent to the hospital's papal suite, which was under renovation.

A working hospital stay ends with Sunday's Angelus

He did not simply rest in the hospital. On two consecutive days he celebrated Mass with medical and nursing staff, distributed Communion, and met senior aides, the Vatican said. On Friday he spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin, pressing for a ceasefire around the Ukrainian city of Oleshky so aid deliveries and civilian evacuations could go ahead, according to the Vatican.

The Vatican confirmed that the Pope Leo hospital discharge will be followed by the traditional Angelus prayer and blessing from the window of the papal apartment on Sunday, Oct. 18, the pope's first public engagement since the surgery. His scheduled appointments and audiences remain cancelled until Oct. 20.

For Catholics around the world, the fast Pope Leo hospital discharge is welcome news after an anxious week. Lung adenocarcinoma is the most common type of lung cancer, and the overwhelming majority of nonsmokers who get lung cancer develop this same form. The pope is a nonsmoker, according to reporting by PEOPLE.

The pace of recovery has surprised physicians watching from afar, and the pope is reportedly doing physiotherapy exercises to help him breathe more easily, according to DW. Faithful are expected to gather in St. Peter's Square on Sunday for an Angelus that comes just days after the Pope Leo hospital discharge.