By Amy B. Wang, The Arizona Republic
It has been three months since Rep.
Gabrielle Giffords was critically wounded when a gunman opened fire at her constituent event north of
Tucson, Ariz.
The attack was so devastating that many news outlets reported the Arizona
Democrat had died. Even after it was confirmed she had survived, the situation appeared grim as details trickled from University Medical Center in Tucson.
Giffords had been shot at point-blank range in the head.
The 9mm bullet had pierced the skull above her left eye and traveled through the left side of her brain and out the back.
Doctors were monitoring her round-the-clock, and they were measuring milestones over hours, not days.
Three months later, snippets from various interviews with Giffords' doctors have painted a much more optimistic picture.
Miraculous.
Lightning speed.
Leaps and bounds.
Since Jan. 26, Giffords has been undergoing intensive rehabilitation at TIRR Memorial Hermann in Houston.
Although suited guards flank the elevators the only indication that a higher-profile patient or visitor might be at the hospital here the congresswoman is just "Gabby."
Gone, for now, are the congressional hearings and the long flights between the nation's capital and Arizona. Now, Giffords has only one job: to recover.
Each day, Giffords undergoes several hours of speech, physical and occupational therapy.
All day, patients and their therapists stream in and out of the main rehabilitation gym, about the size of a high-school basketball court. An oversize quote from the hospital's founding doctor adorns one wall:
"Man uses the tiniest strengths for the greatest purposes."
Against the other walls are colorful exercise balls and traffic cones. A few treadmills, simple exercise bikes and piles of mats fill the room.
Most people are surprised by how basic the equipment can be, said Victoria Miller, a physical therapist at TIRR who has not treated Giffords. They expect complicated, futuristic robotics.
"That's the myth about rehab facilities," she said.
But therapy in this case the art, the arduous work of regaining basic life skills after traumatic brain injury is largely a human-to-human endeavor, with each patient in the room working with someone else who coaxes him or her to take another step or to reach out a little farther.
Giffords' doctors remain tight-lipped about the details of her recovery, citing patient-privacy laws, but did say that she has regained her speech, can walk with assistance and appears to have no memory problems. more at link:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-04-07-giffords-recovery_N.htm
