Giffords Battles Traumatic Brain Injury

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Copyright April 27, 2011
All Rights Reserved.                                         

         Announcing her travel to Cape Canaveral to watch her NASA astronaut-husband  Mark Kelly launched into space on the next Space Shuttle flight, 40-year-old U.S. Rep. Gabrielle “Gabby” Giffords continues her recovery from her Jan. 8 bullet wound through her left-cerebral hemisphere.  Since transferring from University Tucson Medical Center to Houston’s TIRR Memorial Hermann rehab center, Giffords has made progress recovering from her gunshot wound.  “Medically, there is no reason she could not travel safely to Florida to participate in this incredible event with her husband,” said Dr. Dong Kim, director of the Mischer Neuroscience Institute at Memorial Hermann.  Questions regarding Giffords’ recovery from Traumatic Brain Injury continue to dog her PR team who insist she’s made dramatic progress from the Jan. 8 assassination attempt, despite the virtual media blackout

            Gifford’s was shot through the head at point-blank range by 22-year-old community college loner Jared Lee Loughner.  Lougher managed to kill six people at a public “meet-and-greet” at a Tucson shopping center, including 63-year-old U.S. District Court Judge John Roll, and Giffords’ 30-year-old community outreach director Gabe Zimmerman.  When her life-threatening head-wound stabilized, Giffords was transferred to Memorial Hermann for intensive rehab, hoping to restore her lost cognitive functions from her bullet wound.  “She is medically able and well enough to travel without additional risks,” said Kim, chairman of the Houston branch of the Univ. of Texas Medical Center Neurosurgery Dept.  Kim mentioned nothing about Giffords’ cognitive functioning, especially her impaired speech, confining to mostly single-word sentences.

            Giving Giffords the green light to travel has nothing to do with the brain damage connected with her gunshot wound.  Allowing Giffords’ to attend her husband’s “Discovery” launch in no way mirrors her recovery from traumatic brain injury.  “Attending the launch is an opportune time for her to continue her therapy progression,” said Dr. Gerard Francisco, Chief Medical Officer at TIRR Memorial Hermann,” saying nothing about Giffords’ prognosis for a full recovery from TBI.  Nearly five since her brain trauma, Giffords displays severe aphasia, gross impairment of her expressive language ability.  While it’s tempting to draw conclusions about Giffords’ recovery from TBI, traveling to attend her husband’s launch isn’t correlated with her rehab.  Any patient with stable vital signs, regardless of brain damage, can be transported safely from one location to another.

            Gifford’s PR team seized on the chance to market her trip to Cape Canaveral as proof of recovery from her head wound.  “This is great news.  Attending the launch is something the congresswoman has bee working toward and something that’s important for her family and her staff,” said Giffords’ spokesman C.J. Karamargin.  “It’s another significant milestone in her recovery,” stretching the truth about Giffords’ recover well beyond any known facts about her impaired speech.  Her husband, Mark, has admitted that Gabby’s medical team hasn’t even told her about six deaths and numerous injuries from the Jan. 8 assassination attempt.  While there’s nothing wrong with giving Gabby adequate time for rehab, there’s real questions, nearly five months after the fact, whether she’ll ever be fit for duty as a U.S. Congresswoman.  Karamargin’s statements mislead the public regarding Gabby’s recovery.

            If Gabby’s neuro-reab tean admitted, it’s doubtful the congresswoman would ever recover much more of her speech function other than one-word responses, it would open invite speculation about her fitness for duty.  While there’s still a chance, five months after her brain injury, to recover more functions, restoring all her cognitive and speech functions grows more unlikely by the day.  When she was first recovering in Tucson, her doctors stressed the importance of her speech and language abilitie4s once her life-supporting tracheotomy was removed   Her doctors avoided discussing her loss of speech and language abilities before transferred to Houston’s Memorial Haramann Rehab Center.  Transporting Giffords to Flordia to watch her husband’s Space Shuttle launch says nothing about her rehb.  Her spokesperson’s hyperbole indicates that her PR team tries to cover-up her brain damage.

            Giffords’ attendance of her husband’s Space Shuttle launch looks like a publicity stunt to buy her more time before announcing she can’t return to job in Congress.  “We routinely allow patients visits as part of their rehabilitation,” said Francisco in a prepared statement.  “She has mad remarkable progress in her rehabilitation and we so no reason why she could not travel safely to Florida,” deliberately obscuring the extent of Giffords’ brain damage and prognosis for recovery.  Considered a “Blue Dog Democrat,” the Democratic Party doesn’t want to hand Arizona’s Republican Gov. Jan Brewer the chance to appoint a Republican replacement for Giffords.  If her staff or medical team admits that she’s no longer fit for duty, the Democrats lose one more seat in the House.  All the hype about her trip to Florida says nothing about Giffords’ brain damage and prospects of returning to Congress.

 John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news.  He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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