Pope briefly at hospital for 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 a hospital for tests. The visit on Tuesday came more than two months after he was hospitalized with an acute case of bronchitis. The ANSA news agency said that Francis went to Rome’s Gemelli hospital for tests. Witnesses said that he returned to the Vatican 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.