Giffords's husband says she recognizes him ("If I hold her hand, she'll play with my wedding ring")

[kpete]

Source: Reuters

Giffords's husband says she recognizes him

By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES | Tue Jan 18, 2011 8:46pm EST

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Congressman Gabrielle Giffords' husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, says he is certain his wife recognizes him and is making her awareness of his bedside presence known more than a week after she was shot through the head.

While doctors at University Medical Center in Tucson, Arizona, said over the weekend that Giffords remained mostly incommunicative, Kelly said his spouse is connecting with him through small, but distinct gestures.

"If I hold her hand, she'll play with my wedding ring," Kelly, a NASA space shuttle commander, told ABC News in his first television interview since his wife was gravely wounded in a shooting rampage on January 8.

"She'll move (the ring) up and down my finger. She'll take it off. ... She'll put it on her own finger. She'll move it to her thumb. And then she can put it back on my finger," he said.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE70I0E520110119

[derby378]

1. Okay, I'm getting a little misty-eyed now...

This is truly remarkable. I reiterate that I want her to recover enough to stare down her would-be assassin at his trial.

I may need to :cry: now.

[madmax]

2. Earlier I heard a report that it's possible

she may leave the hospital in a week. Where home, rehab? I missed that, if they did.

[derby378]

3. I suspect she's going to require more than a little rehab

The name of the game now is preventing any permanent loss of cognition or motor function. Failing that, the next step will be to minimize such loss as much as medically possible.

[alwaysdemocratic]

5. Rehab

I read that she will be going into rehab. I really don't see how she could go home. She needs constant nursing and therapist care.

[hlthe2b]

6. she'll go to a long term residential rehab facility...

for many months in all likelihood...

[Dappleganger]

14. This is the most difficult step.

My mother had a series of strokes at the age of 65 and ended up in a long-term care facility. She made great strides, but it was a very long and winding road and never fully recovered. Nearly one year later she had another stroke which took her. Although her brain injury was different, there are some similarities wrt re-routing synapses. My sister and I had to educate ourselves very quickly during that time so we could ensure that mom was getting the best treatment possible. We did move her to a better facility (more challenging) which was a big hurdle but we fought the battle tooth and nail to get her the best care for her type of stroke.

[hlthe2b]

15. So very difficult...

I think fighting for the best care for a seriously ill or aging parent is the most difficult thing children or other loved ones can wrestle with.
My sister and I had a shorter (3 months) but very difficult ICU experience with my Dad. Only those who go through it can possibly know what lies ahead. There really is no way to prepare. :hug:

[Dappleganger]

19. You're right, no way to prepare for it.

Thanks, btw. :)

What surprised us the most were some of the health care providers who fought us the hardest--we just assumed that Mom's best interests were their concern as well. We were so wrong about that one!

[PSzymeczek]

7. The doctors have said

rehab is the next step.

[crim son]

9. You and I feel exactly the same way,

about her recognizing her husband and about wanting her to recover to be able to face Loughner so he can see what real courage and strength look like,IF he stands trial; from what I've read and seen he appears to be a paranoid schizophrenic. They may be able to medicate him into competence but that doesn't mean he was competent at the time of the shooting. Ugh, it's all so horrible.

[boppers]

16. The standard for mental ability during a fed. crime of assassination has been significantly changed.

John Hinkley fallout.

http://www.justice.gov/usao/eousa/foia_reading_room/usam/title9/crm00634.htm

[forty6]

4. Wonderful news! I'm sure she will go to rehab, as she will have a...

long way to go to greater recovery.

But these signs indicate she is not only aware of her surroundings, her consciousness, she is acutely aware of who is next to her, and what relevance they have to her past life, she is remembering important things in her life, a very encouraging sign.

Restoration of full intellectual faculties, speech, and motor functions would be unpredictable, but these recent events of the last 7 days indicate more and more hopeful signs of a better prognosis for greater recovery each and every time we learn of these.

First were the hand communication, then the eyes opening, indicating she is able to process outside stimuli, and respond to them. These latest revelations indicate she is thinking in an orderly and relevant fashion and responding to deeper meanings and symbols in her life, very encouraging. Even if her speech, (when she is able to do that), is impaired, her ability to communicate in some fashion will be at a high and profound level, given the symbolism of the wedding ring event described here.

I think she is one rare example of reasonably fast recovery from such a serious trauma to the brain. Just amazing!

[Control-Z]

8. You seem to know a lot about this kind of injury.

Are you a medical professional? If so, why would they choose a tracheotomy (that prevents speaking) after taking her off the ventilator?

[eilen]

13. Is she really off the vent or did they just remove the oral

breathing tube and place the trach? Didn't she just have another surgery to replace her bone? They would need a trach or tube for that too.

She might still need a little support breathing-- like positive pressure. She can still talk if they put a certain valve in the trach. She likely has secretions and they don't want her to aspirate and get a pneumonia. Her gag reflex may not be intact. And her swallowing will need to be tested.

[dipsydoodle]

18. See note here.

http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/865068-overview

I recall that happening here with an American youngster in the next bed to my wife following my wife's brain surgery 1988. The youngster was a in coma following a serious traffic accident as a pedestrian.

Similar happened with our young receptionist who was involved in a head on car collision in 1993 and was in a coma for some months - she recovered.

Off topic re. the US youngster : we drive on the left here and our children are taught to look right, look left, look right. Your children are taught differently because you drive on the right.

[Teaser]

10. could be confirmation bias.

but am hopeful.

[Jefferson23]

11. Remarkable isn't it, when you think about the close range she was hit.

Hopefully she will have a complete recovery, sooner than later.

[applegrove]

12. Oh I hope she keeps improving. It does seem like it is a great sign.

[RamboLiberal]

17. Mother Sees Hopeful Signs for Giffords

In an exuberant e-mail to family and friends Tuesday, the mother of Representative Gabrielle Giffords described remarkable progress by her daughter. According to the e-mail, Ms. Giffords scrolled through photographs on her husband’s iPhone, tried to undo his tie and shirt and even began to look at get-well cards and pages of large-print text taken from a Harry Potter book.

“Everyday Gabby improves and shows higher levels of comprehension and complex actions,” Ms. Giffords’s mother, Gloria, wrote.

-----

Mrs. Giffords also said her daughter would be released from the hospital on Friday and taken to a rehabilitation center. Ms. Giffords’s staff said no final decision had been made.

Ms. Giffords’s doctors say they are encouraged but urge caution. She is not yet trying to speak, they said, and the most difficult challenges are still to come.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/19/us/19email.html?_r=1

Her doctors tonight also told Diane Sawyer that when they hold a page with writing in front of Giffords that is upside down, she turns it right side up.

[hamsterjill]

20. I like her husband!

I'm very happy to learn that Congresswoman Giffords continues to improve, and I wish her well for the long road ahead of her.

I've been so impressed with her husband's handling of all of this. I know he's an astronaut and therefore probably trained in dealing with crisis, etc., but it's got to be different when it's your spouse.

I really like the humility that he's shown each time that he's spoken. He always reminds the media that there were six people who died, and therefore won't have the opportunity to recover as his wife will.

[jakeXT]

21. If she plays with his iphone, reads Harry Potter and wants to undress her husband, it's pretty good

According to the e-mail, Ms. Giffords scrolled through photographs on her husband's iPhone, tried to undo his tie and shirt and even began to look at get-well cards and pages of large-print text taken from a Harry Potter book

Read more: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11019/1118984-84.stm?cmpid=nationworld.xml#ixzz1BUvq1g2C


I wonder what happens to her when she is told about the victims




The husband of Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords has not told his wife what happened to her outside a Tucson Safeway store on Jan. 8, when a gunman shot her in the head.

Mark Kelly, who spoke with Arizona Public Media on Tuesday afternoon, also said he hasn't told her that a close aide -- 30 year-old Gabriel Zimmerman -- was among the six people who died during the rampage. Thirteen people were wounded.

http://www.scpr.org/news/2011/01/19/giffords-hasnt-been-told-details-of-tucson-shootin/