Amazing: Gabrielle Giffords Cleared to Attend Husband’s Shuttle Launch
Back in January, when a madman shot Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in the head during a rampage outside a Tuscon Safeway, nobody could have predicted that she would make it out alive, let alone walk or talk again. Many media outlets mistakenly reported that she had been killed. Certainly, no one could have predicted in just three months she would be allowed to leave a rehabilitation hospital.
So if you’re looking for a bright spot on this Monday morning, here’s soime good news: Doctors have cleared Giffords to travel to the coming space shuttle launch of her husband, NASA astronaut Mark Kelly.
Kelly, commander on space shuttle Endeavor, will blast off on Friday with Giffords in the crowd.
There have been hints that Giffords is close to walking on her own, and then when she is finally released from the rehabilitation hospital she’s planning to “walk a mountain.”
Then there is this: “For somebody with that kind of injury, we start with, ‘Are they even going to come out of the coma,’ much less ‘what are they going to be doing later?’,” Dr. Dong Kim, Giffords’ neurosurgeon, told the UPI. Giffords “is maybe in the top 1 percent of patients in terms of how far she’s come, and how quickly she’s gotten there. I think the question, then, becomes, how far is she going to go?”
As uplifting as the news of her being cleared to watch her husband’s shuttle launch is, and the notion of her walking again, The Arizona Republic has a stellar piece on Gifford’s progress and recovery. It’s touching, a bit emotional and worth taking the time to read. The opening sentence hooks readers immediately: “Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is left-handed now.” What follows is a testament to the human spirit, courage and medical science all colliding together in what can only be considered “a miracle.”
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