These are the windows of Pope Francis' apartment on the 10th floor of this hospital, the Gemelli Polyclinic in Rome. It is a suite of about 200 square meters with several rooms, including a chapel and a living room.
But the Argentine is not the first to pass through this center, although it is true that it is his fourth time admitted here.
And although Pope Benedict XVI was never hospitalized, he did go, for example, to visit his brother, Georg.
The one who spent the most time in Gemelli was Pope John Paul II: no more and no less than a total of 153 days in various periods.
The Pole was the first pope to go to this hospital for treatment, and not because the Holy See has an agreement with Gemelli to accommodate popes as a rule. Rather, it was by chance that it became a tradition.
When Pope John Paul II was shot in St. Peter's Square in 1981, it was decided to take him to this hospital, where he underwent a six-hour operation to remove the bullet.
From that year until his death in 2005, he was admitted on up to 10 occasions. That is why a large sculpture of him presides over the entrance to the hospital and Gemelli was nicknamed Vatican III, the first being St. Peter's and the second, Castel Gandolfo, the summer residence of the Popes.
Gemelli is also at the top of the lists of the best hospitals. Many consider it the best in Italy. It is also one of the most important in Europe and the world.
In fact, one of the Pope's doctors said it at the press conference on February 21. Although the Pope is not an ordinary patient, the medical treatment he receives is not special; it is done with each of the sick people who pass through Gemelli.
DR. SERGIO ALFIERI
Gemelli Polyclinic Hospital (Rome)
What you have heard about the Pope, it (Gemelli) does every day for all patients. It is not that the specialists we see every day have come from their homes. We are here every day for the same problems with the same patients.
Although Gemelli currently only has occasional links with the Holy See, such as the signing of research agreements, the truth is that it is named after a Franciscan friar, the doctor Agostino Gemelli.
In addition, it was Pope Pius XI who donated the land in 1934 for the construction of this Catholic university center, which opened in the 1960s and has not stopped growing since then. It is a hospital that started with 70 beds and now has more than 1,500.
CA
TR: GS
