Major progress-Doctors Call Giffords’s Progress Remarkable

[DearAbby]

TUCSON — Five days after she was shot in the head at close range, Representative Gabrielle Giffords is able to keep her eyes open for as long as 15 minutes and can move her legs and hands, although her right hand has only slight movement, doctors at University Medical Center here said on Thursday.

Doctors called her progress “a major leap forward” but expressed caution, saying that for now, they would not upgrade Ms. Giffords, an Arizona Democrat, from critical condition. Dr. Peter Rhee, head of trauma at the hospital, said in an interview that the team planned to bring an expert neuro-ophthalmologist and oculoplastic surgeon to help assess the injuries to the bones around Ms. Giffords’s eyes. The damage to the area could have damaged her vision, Dr. Rhee said.

“I believe one day she will be able to think,” Dr. Rhee said. “What she will be able to do physically, it is too early to say.”

In response to a reporter’s question about whether Ms. Giffords’s recovery might be considered miraculous, Dr. G. Michael Lemole Jr., the hospital’s chief of neurosurgery said, “Miracles happen every day, and in medicine, we like to attribute them to what we do or what others do around us. A lot of medicine is outside our control. We are wise to acknowledge miracles.”

More: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/14/us/14giffords.html?_r=2&ref=us

Miracles with love do happen

[sadbear]

1. I wonder how the right-wing will try to take credit

[virgogal]

2. Why on earth are you politicizing some very good news? Give it a rest.

[DearAbby]

3. Kick