TUCSON — Just three days after a bullet passed
through Representative Gabrielle Giffords’s brain,
and one day before the president was scheduled
to come here to address the shooting rampage in
which she was wounded, doctors said Tuesday
that Ms. Giffords ’s chances of survival were
certain. She is able to breathe on her own,
although she remains on a ventilator as a
precaution.
What her recovery will look like, however, and
how long it will take remain unclear.
“She has a 101 percent chance of survival,” said
Dr. Peter Rhee the director of medical trauma at
the University Medical Center, where Ms. Giffords
is being treated. “I can’t tell whether she’s going
to be in a vegetative state. I hope that she’s not
and I don’t think she will be in a vegetative state,
but I know that she’s not going to die.”
President Obama will deliver a speech here
Wednesday evening at a memorial service for the
victims of the attack. His aides said he would
focus on the theme of service to country and
avoid the debate about whether the state ’s
political climate might have played a role in the
tragedy.
Instead, Mr. Obama, who was still working with
his speechwriters on Tuesday, will call for unity
among Americans, while trying to hold up the
lives of the victims, including their service to
government, as an example to all Americans. He
will share some anecdotes about the victims
from private phone calls he has made to the
families, aides said.
Meanwhile, across Tucson, there was a flurry of
efforts to address the psychological effects of
Saturday morning ’s shootings, which left six
dead and 14 wounded. Two churches held
memorial services Tuesday night, drawing large
crowds.
In Phoenix, the State Legislature quickly passed an
emergency law to block a controversial church
that protests outside funerals from getting too
close to the services planned in Tucson.
The measure, which keeps protesters 300 feet
back from funerals, is intended to head off
members of the Westboro Baptist Church in
Kansas, who have praised the shooting and plan
to picket the funeral on Thursday of Christina
Green, a 9-year-old victim, and a service on
Friday for Judge John M. Roll of Federal District
Court.
“I was physically sick when I heard this,” said
State Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who sponsored
the measure. “Then I decided to do something.
Nothing happens in one day in politics, but this
did. This tragedy is nonpartisan. It ’s human.”
Community volunteers were mobilizing to plan
their own street-side memorial service to counter
the protesters, with some planning to wear angel
wings.
At the hospital, Ms. Giffords’s doctors said the
outcome could have been far worse. They said
she had done remarkably well so far. But they
cautioned that there was little more they could do
medically to help her improve.
Over the last several days, Ms. Giffords has
repeatedly given nonverbal responses to her
doctors ’ commands, they said, and CAT scan X-
rays have shown that there is no swelling, which
continues to be the most serious threat. So far,
doctors said, she has shown only slight
movement on the right side of her body, raising
questions about her functional neurological
status. Doctors again declined to give some
specific details about Ms. Giffords.
“This is the phase of the care where it’s so much
up to her,” said Dr. G. Michael Lemole Jr., the
hospital’s chief of neurosurgery, during a news
conference Tuesday morning. “As long as we
don’t backslide and as long as she holds her own,
that’s good. That keeps us hopeful. But we have
to play this really according to her timeline, not
ours. ”
Dr. Lemole said Ms. Giffords would remain
connected to a ventilator as a precaution, to
prevent pneumonia or infections in her windpipe.
But because she cannot talk it is so far not
possible for doctors to assess more complex
brain functions.
For the last three days, Ms. Giffords has
repeatedly gripped hands or flashed a finger after
doctors prompted her. Dr. Rhee said Ms. Giffords
appeared to be responding without prompts
now, repeatedly flashing a thumbs-up at doctors
and her husband, Mark Kelly, an astronaut.
“She has no right to look this good, and she
does,” Dr. Lemole said.
Five other victims remained in the hospital on
Tuesday, including Suzi Hileman, who had taken
9-year-old Christina Green to the event Saturday.
Ms. Hileman is expected to recover from at least
three gunshot wounds and a shattered hip. The
most difficult path ahead will be grappling with
the emotions, and guilt, over Christina’s death,
her husband, Bill Hileman, said Tuesday.
Several times in the last three days, Mr. Hileman
said, his wife has screamed “Christina! Christina!”
as though she were having a flashback. “She
keeps talking about how they had this incredibly
tight grip on each other ” when the shots began,
he said. “She told me that they were almost
breaking each other’s hands.”
Reporting was contributed by Lawrence K.
Altman and Helene Cooper in Washington and
Marc Lacey, Ford Burkhart, Ron Nixon, Lisa
Button, Carli Brosseau, Will Ferguson and Clayton
Norman in Tucson.
Source: Http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/12/us/12giffords.html
through Representative Gabrielle Giffords’s brain,
and one day before the president was scheduled
to come here to address the shooting rampage in
which she was wounded, doctors said Tuesday
that Ms. Giffords ’s chances of survival were
certain. She is able to breathe on her own,
although she remains on a ventilator as a
precaution.
What her recovery will look like, however, and
how long it will take remain unclear.
“She has a 101 percent chance of survival,” said
Dr. Peter Rhee the director of medical trauma at
the University Medical Center, where Ms. Giffords
is being treated. “I can’t tell whether she’s going
to be in a vegetative state. I hope that she’s not
and I don’t think she will be in a vegetative state,
but I know that she’s not going to die.”
President Obama will deliver a speech here
Wednesday evening at a memorial service for the
victims of the attack. His aides said he would
focus on the theme of service to country and
avoid the debate about whether the state ’s
political climate might have played a role in the
tragedy.
Instead, Mr. Obama, who was still working with
his speechwriters on Tuesday, will call for unity
among Americans, while trying to hold up the
lives of the victims, including their service to
government, as an example to all Americans. He
will share some anecdotes about the victims
from private phone calls he has made to the
families, aides said.
Meanwhile, across Tucson, there was a flurry of
efforts to address the psychological effects of
Saturday morning ’s shootings, which left six
dead and 14 wounded. Two churches held
memorial services Tuesday night, drawing large
crowds.
In Phoenix, the State Legislature quickly passed an
emergency law to block a controversial church
that protests outside funerals from getting too
close to the services planned in Tucson.
The measure, which keeps protesters 300 feet
back from funerals, is intended to head off
members of the Westboro Baptist Church in
Kansas, who have praised the shooting and plan
to picket the funeral on Thursday of Christina
Green, a 9-year-old victim, and a service on
Friday for Judge John M. Roll of Federal District
Court.
“I was physically sick when I heard this,” said
State Senator Kyrsten Sinema, who sponsored
the measure. “Then I decided to do something.
Nothing happens in one day in politics, but this
did. This tragedy is nonpartisan. It ’s human.”
Community volunteers were mobilizing to plan
their own street-side memorial service to counter
the protesters, with some planning to wear angel
wings.
At the hospital, Ms. Giffords’s doctors said the
outcome could have been far worse. They said
she had done remarkably well so far. But they
cautioned that there was little more they could do
medically to help her improve.
Over the last several days, Ms. Giffords has
repeatedly given nonverbal responses to her
doctors ’ commands, they said, and CAT scan X-
rays have shown that there is no swelling, which
continues to be the most serious threat. So far,
doctors said, she has shown only slight
movement on the right side of her body, raising
questions about her functional neurological
status. Doctors again declined to give some
specific details about Ms. Giffords.
“This is the phase of the care where it’s so much
up to her,” said Dr. G. Michael Lemole Jr., the
hospital’s chief of neurosurgery, during a news
conference Tuesday morning. “As long as we
don’t backslide and as long as she holds her own,
that’s good. That keeps us hopeful. But we have
to play this really according to her timeline, not
ours. ”
Dr. Lemole said Ms. Giffords would remain
connected to a ventilator as a precaution, to
prevent pneumonia or infections in her windpipe.
But because she cannot talk it is so far not
possible for doctors to assess more complex
brain functions.
For the last three days, Ms. Giffords has
repeatedly gripped hands or flashed a finger after
doctors prompted her. Dr. Rhee said Ms. Giffords
appeared to be responding without prompts
now, repeatedly flashing a thumbs-up at doctors
and her husband, Mark Kelly, an astronaut.
“She has no right to look this good, and she
does,” Dr. Lemole said.
Five other victims remained in the hospital on
Tuesday, including Suzi Hileman, who had taken
9-year-old Christina Green to the event Saturday.
Ms. Hileman is expected to recover from at least
three gunshot wounds and a shattered hip. The
most difficult path ahead will be grappling with
the emotions, and guilt, over Christina’s death,
her husband, Bill Hileman, said Tuesday.
Several times in the last three days, Mr. Hileman
said, his wife has screamed “Christina! Christina!”
as though she were having a flashback. “She
keeps talking about how they had this incredibly
tight grip on each other ” when the shots began,
he said. “She told me that they were almost
breaking each other’s hands.”
Reporting was contributed by Lawrence K.
Altman and Helene Cooper in Washington and
Marc Lacey, Ford Burkhart, Ron Nixon, Lisa
Button, Carli Brosseau, Will Ferguson and Clayton
Norman in Tucson.
Source: Http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/12/us/12giffords.html
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