Recovery and physical therapy have gone so well for Gabrielle Giffords that she speaks now, after being shot in the head a month ago. Image from Wikimedia Commons.
Reports are emerging the Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords speaks again. Giffords is undergoing intense physical therapy after being shot in the head and reportedly asked medical staff for toast with her breakfast. Giffords is recovering at an incredible pace, given the wounds she sustained.
Wounded Arizona Congresswoman makes big progress
Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was recently moved to a physical rehabilitation facility in Houston, Texas, from the hospital in Tuscon, Ariz., where she was recovering from a traumatic brain injury. Giffords had been making incredible advances in recovering from the wounds she sustained in the Tuscon shooting rampage allegedly carried out by Jared Lee Loughner. On Jan. 8, she was rushed to a Tuscon hospital after being shot in the head, and nearly a month later, she has begun speaking again, according to CBS. Her physical therapy regimen at TIRR Memorial Herman Hospital is intense. Giffords was moved there because the hospital specializes in physical therapy for victims of severe head and brain trauma.
Giffords speaks and asks for toast
Part of recovery for Giffords includes speech therapy, which a spokesperson said is paying off. It isn’t known exactly how she is speaking, as Giffords had previously been fitted with a breathing tube and would need either a speaking vent placed in the tube, or the ventilation tube to be removed for her to be able to speak. She has also regained an appetite. Her husband, Mark Kelly, recently posted to her Facebook page that “Gabby’s appetite is back — even though it’s hospital food.” Kelly will rejoin the crew of the Space Shuttle Endeavour for the swan song of that shuttle craft, possibly as soon as April.
Courthouse to be named for victim
Congress recently passed a bill that would name a federal courthouse to honor one of the victims of the Tuscon shooting rampage that left six dead and 13 wounded, according to Reuters. A new courthouse is being constructed in Yuma, Ariz., which will be named for Chief Judge John M. Roll. The building should open in 2013.
