TUCSON — In yet another sign of significant recovery during a remarkable week, gravely wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was upgraded from critical to serious condition Sunday after a procedure to remove her from a ventilator was successful.
Doctors have been positive, and at times almost giddy, in describing her progress since she was shot point blank in the head Jan. 8.
Giffords responded from the moment she arrived at the emergency room, at first just squeezing a doctor’s hand. Then she raised two fingers. She opened her unbandaged eye shortly after President Barack Obama’s bedside visit Wednesday. Then, more milestones — which doctors said were all indicative of higher cognitive function — were achieved, all with her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, at her side.
Kelly asked her to give him a thumbs-up if she could hear him. She did more than that. She slowly raised her left arm. By the end of the week, she had moved her legs and arms.
At the hospital, more than 100 people were gathered amid the sea of get-well balloons and cards when the University of Arizona put out a statement upgrading her condition.
“Oh, that’s great news,” said Jean Emrick, a 50-year resident of Tucson.
Doctors decided to upgrade Giffords’ condition because the tracheotomy done a day earlier was uneventful, hospital spokeswoman Katie Riley said. A feeding tube was also put in Saturday, and doctors speculated that they might soon know if she could speak.
Few people survive a bullet to the brain — 10 percent — and some who do end up in a vegetative state. It is even more rare for people with gunshot wounds to the head to regain all of their abilities, and doctors have cautioned that the full extent of Giffords’ recovery remains uncertain.
Giffords and 18 others were shot when a gunman opened fire at a meet-and-greet she was hosting outside a supermarket. Six people died, including Giffords’ popular community-outreach director, Gabe Zim merman.
At funeral services for Zimmerman on Sunday, Kelly told the 700 or so people gathered that his wife was inspired by Zimmerman’s idealism and warmth, according to the Arizona Republic.
“Gabby and I spoke often about Gabe. She loved him like a younger brother,” Kelly said. “I know someday she’ll get to tell you herself how she felt about Gabe.”
Late Sunday, The Washington Post reported that the trial of shooting suspect Jared Loughner would be moved to San Diego because of extensive pretrial publicity in Arizona, according to federal law enforcement sources.
Federal officials said San Diego would get the case in part because it’s one of the closest judicial districts to Arizona, The Post reported. A San Diego-based federal judge, Larry A. Burns, was appointed last week to hear the case because Arizona judges recused themselves. Judy Clarke, Loughner’s attorney, is based there.
Changes of venue are not regularly granted, but they occur in high-profile cases such as the trial of Timothy McVeigh, who was convicted in Denver in the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City.
Interview with husband airs Tuesday
PASADENA, Calif. — ABC’s Diane Sawyer will air the first television interview with astronaut Mark Kelly, husband of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
The network said Kelly spoke to Sawyer on Saturday at the hospital where Giffords continues to recover from being shot in the head Jan. 8.
ABC said Sunday the interview will air in a prime-time special Tuesday night and in various ABC News broadcasts, starting Tuesday with “Good Morning America.” In the prime-time special, titled “The Congresswoman and the Astronaut: An American Story of Love and Strength,” Kelly talks about the moment he heard his wife was shot, the bedside vigil he has kept and how the support of the nation has affected them, the network said.
