Rep. Giffords Continues To Improve

All things considered, Congresswoman Gabriellie Giffords seems to be having a good recovery so far:

TUCSON – Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was upgraded from critical to serious condition Sunday after doctors determined that there were no complications from having her ventilator removed a day earlier.

In a statement released Sunday afternoon, Tucson’s University Medical Center reported that Giffords “continues to do well. She is breathing on her own. Yesterday’s procedures were successful and uneventful.”

Also, Giffords husband, Space Shuttle Commander Mark Kelly, made his first public statement since the shooting:

TUCSON — On a day when Representative Gabrielle Giffords’s condition was upgraded to serious from critical, her husband, Mark Kelly, spoke publicly for the first time on Sunday. He left his wife’s hospital bedside to take the stage at a memorial service for Gabriel Zimmerman, an aide who was killed in the shooting rampage that left Ms. Giffords grievously wounded.

Mr. Kelly told the several hundred mourners gathered in the courtyard at the Tucson Museum of Art that he had just come from the hospital and that his wife was “improving a little bit each day. She’s a fighter.”

“I know someday she’ll get to tell you how she felt about Gabe herself,” Mr. Kelly said.

His wife loved Mr. Zimmerman “like a younger brother,” he said, and was inspired by “his idealism, his strength and his warmth.”

Considering that one typically thinks the worst when someone is shot in the head, this is all very good news. Hopefully, the remainder of her recovery will go just as well.

FILED UNDER: Congress, Crime, US Politics, ,
Doug Mataconis
About Doug Mataconis
Doug Mataconis held a B.A. in Political Science from Rutgers University and J.D. from George Mason University School of Law. He joined the staff of OTB in May 2010 and contributed a staggering 16,483 posts before his retirement in January 2020. He passed far too young in July 2021.

Comments

  1. Mithras says:

    I’m really glad she’s survived so far, but I think the best-case scenario is she’ll be able to live several years with assistance. Walking and talking is probably too much to hope for.