Pope Francis waves to crowd before being leaving hospital

Pope Francis has left a Rome hospital after five weeks of battling double pneumonia to continue his recovery at the Vatican.

Pope Francis waves to the crowd from a balcony of the Gemelli hospital in Rome before being discharged following a five weeks hospitalisation for pneumonia. Picture: Vatican Media/AFP

Pope Francis has left a Rome hospital after five weeks of battling double pneumonia to continue his recovery at the Vatican.

The 88-year-old Pontiff waved from a balcony to hospital staff and supporters who had gathered on the Gemilli hospital forecourt on Sunday morning.

The Pope has been hospitalised since February 14 and for much of that time had been in a critical condition, including several episodes of severe respiratory distress that required urgent medical intervention.

On two occasions his aides believed he may not pull through.

However, in recent days, the Pope had been feeling better and his condition was upgraded to being stable.

He emerged on the balcony on the fifth floor of the hospital, some five floors below where he had been receiving treatment. Sitting in a wheelchair the Pope waved to everyone below saying: ’Thank you, everyone. I can see a woman with some yellow flowers. How good!” He then made the sign of the cross as he was wheeled back inside.

Minutes later he left the hospital in a Fiat 500 for what medical staff predict will be at least several months of convalescence.

The Vatican said that the Pope had met with the Rector of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Professor Elena Beccalli; the President of the Agostino Gemelli IRCCS University Polyclinic Foundation, Dr. Daniele Franco; and the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the Catholic University as well as other senior members of the hospital team.

Concerns for the Pope’s health were first raised in early February when he suffered bronchitis, which then deteriorated.

Doctors described the Pope’s health as a “complex picture” and the world was told in daily updates of his difficulties breathing. For much of his hospitalisation the Pope was given oxygen, blood transfusions, and at one point showed signs of kidney failure.

However, on good days the Pope continued to conduct some of the Church’s business, even signing off on decrees concerning those on the path to sainthood, US military chaplain Fr Emil Kapaun; Italian layman Bartolo Longo, the “Apostle of the Rosary” and five others. During his hospital stay the Pope issued a statement saying: ”I have recently received many messages of affection, and I have been particularly struck by the letters and drawings from children. Thank you for your closeness, and for the consoling prayers I have received from all over the world.”