Pope briefly in hospital for scheduled tests two months after bronchitis, returns to Vatican

By PAOLO SANTALUCIA and NICOLE WINFIELD
Associated Press

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis has made a quick trip to the hospital for tests. The visit comes more than two months after he was hospitalized with an acute case of bronchitis. The ANSA news agency said Francis went to Rome’s Gemelli hospital for tests. Witnesses at the Vatican’s Perugino gate, one of the main entrances to the city state, said he returned a short while later and greeted guards. The 86-year-old pope spent three days at the hospital in late March. Initially the Vatican said he had gone in for scheduled tests, but the pontiff later revealed he had felt pain in his chest and was rushed to the hospital where bronchitis was diagnosed. He was put on intravenous antibiotics and was released April 1, quipping that he was “still alive.”