PJ: This is a wonderful story about a human struggle and the success achieved against seemingly impossible odds. It is a high profile story which brings into focus the positive developments in medicine with respect to the treatment and therapy of brain injury.
On a political note, in Giffords' and husband Mark Kelly's book documenting the tragic shooting and Giffords recovery from a gun shot wound to the head, Kelly references the controversial cross-hairs map Sarah Palin issued leading up the the mid-term congressional election where Giffords was targeted. At the time, Giffords was interviewed on national television to say that such violent imagery was dangerous. In their book, after the tragic shooting, Kelly wrote that he did not blame Palin for the actions of a madman, buy says that he had expected Palin to call and wish them well; he had planned to tell her that she was not responsible for the gunman's actions but that her rhetoric was irresponsible. Reading US news accounts of this small statement has yielded an ugly response from the right-wing who are now criticizing Giffords and her husband on may levels.
I think that if a loved one of mine had been targeted by cross-hairs then subsequently shot in the head at point-blank range I might harbor the same feelings as those expressed by both Giffords and her husband. Sadly, politics in America has gone beyond the rational and settled instead on a political ideological justification for everything.
Daily Mirror
Gabrielle Giffords interview: US Congresswoman on her incredible recovery after shooting and being as tough as nails
by Ryan Parry
SHE might stumble to get the words out, but Gabrielle Giffords’ simple summary of her incredible fightback says it all: “Tough as nails.”
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Once the US Congresswoman’s eloquent speeches captivated her listeners at the Capitol building in Washington DC.
But now 41-year-old Gabrielle speaks in a halting, staccato style, often repeating a single word several times to get her point across.
Even so, it is remarkable that the respected Democrat can speak at all.
Gabrielle was shot in the left side of her brain from just 3ft away at a meet and greet event outside a Safeway supermarket in Tuscon, Arizona, in January.
Jared Lee Loughner, 23, who was arrested at the scene, has pleaded not guilty to 49 charges stemming from the rampage which left six dead and 13 injured. He is currently awaiting trial.
Amid the chaos Gabrielle was feared dead, but thanks to life-saving surgery and months of intensive therapy she has made an amazing recovery.
And yesterday, in her first TV interview since the attack, she vowed to battle back to full health and return to frontline politics when she was “better”.
Asked how she had fared since the shooting, she said in a clear but halting voice: “Pretty good... Difficult... Strong, strong, strong.”
Nestled in the arms of her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, she recalled hearing that six people had died in the shootings and 12 others were wounded.
Gabrielle said, quietly: “I cried... A lot of people died.”
Later in the interview with ABC, Mark, 47, insisted: “Gabrielle Giffords is too tough to let this beat her.”
Looking directly at him, Gabrielle echoed his words: “Tough, tough, tough.” Then she leant over and kissed him on his bald head.
Asked if she felt angry about what had happened to her on that terrible day, she replied calmly: “No, no, no. Life, life.”
Gabrielle’s brown hair has grown into a chic elfin style since it was all shaved off in May for surgery to repair her skull. Dressed for the TV interview in a smart green top with gold buttons and wearing dark-rimmed glasses, she seemed alert, curious, confident and determined.
It was clear her intellectual skills remain intact – even if she is still a long way from being able to carry on a detailed conversation. But that will come.
Her speech therapist believes there is plenty more progress to be made. In the initial days and weeks after the shooting Gabrielle struggled to understand what had happened and to communicate with others in the most basic forms.
She found it tough just to nod or raise two fingers. Once when her therapist asked her what you sit on, she replied “spoon” before later settling on “chair”.
And for weeks she would answer questions with “chicken-chicken-chicken”. In the Giffords’ book, Gabby: A Story Of Courage And Hope, out in America today, she recalls the moment she realised she was “trapped” in her own mind. From her hospital bed she started panicking, flapping her arms and hyperventilating.
Months later, when words finally started escaping from her mouth in staccato phrases, she told Mark: “Voice in my head.” He realised she meant that voice was her own – haunting and frustrating because she couldn’t use it to speak.
The book also shares her humiliation when she couldn’t ask nurses to get her to the toilet.
Gabrielle writes: “Just rolling on to my side is hard. Hard to sleep at night. Reminds me of how badly I was hurt. It was hard but I’m alive.”
Her first TV interview was accompanied by a video filmed by Mark which documents his wife’s courageous recovery.
One clip shows Gabrielle sobbing in her therapist’s arms at Houston’s TIRR Memorial Hermann hospitals. But in the following months she gradually became more upbeat. Eventually, she began to speak again – and to smile.
Music helped a lot in her recovery. Some of Mark’s video footage shows her singing Cyndi Lauper’s Girls Just Wanna Have Fun and Free Falling by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers along with hospital staff.
The tragedy also helped heal a rift between her and her teenage stepdaughters, Claudia and Claire.
Cold and indifferent towards Gabrielle after she married their dad in 2007, they admitted on the ABC show that they regretted not being closer to their stepmother before the shooting.
Mark also touches on the subject in their book. He writes: “Gabby tried her best to connect with my kids. They wouldn’t be rude. They just weren’t receptive.” Gabrielle told him: “I understand. They’re kids and I love them. I’m patient. I’ll wait for them to come around.”
Mark and his girls were in Houston when Gabrielle was meeting constituents at the supermarket in Tuscon.
When they heard of the killing spree, they immediately flew to be by her hospital bedside.
Claudia said: “I took Gabby for granted for so long. I’m lucky I got a second chance to build a relationship with her.”
Gabrielle is also determined that she will have a second chance at her political career.
Throughout her recovery she aced tests on politicians and current affairs, dubbing Margaret Thatcher “Iron Lady” and commenting “Tea Party” about Michele Bachmann.
After being shown Arnold Schwarzenegger’s photo she said: “Messin’ around. Babies.”
Determined to reclaim her seat in the House of Representatives, Gabrielle also longs to have a baby.
Closing her book, she says: “Hope and faith. You have to have hope and faith. Lot of people died. Six wonderful people. So many people hurt. Always connected to them. I will get stronger. I will return.”
You don’t doubt that she will.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/11/16/gabrielle-giffords-on-her-incredible-recovery-after-shooting-and-being-as-tough-as-nails-115875-23564436/
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