Upstream | February 13, 2011 | 22 comments

Congresswoman Gabby Giffords Labors to Speak Again

source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/14/us/14giffords.html?_r=1&hp

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EthicalVegan
The New York Times

February 13, 2011

Word and Lyric, Giffords Labors to Speak Again

By MARC LACEY and JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.



PART ONE...


PHOENIX — Representative Gabrielle Giffords, an eloquent speaker before she was shot in the head last month, is relearning the skill — progressing from mouthing words and lip-syncing songs to talking briefly by telephone to her brother-in-law in space.

With a group of friends and family members acting as a backup chorus, Ms. Giffords has been mouthing the lyrics to “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” and “I Can’t Give You Anything but Love, Baby.” And as a surprise for her husband, who is celebrating his birthday this month, a longtime friend who has been helping her through her rehabilitation videotaped her mouthing the words to “Happy Birthday to You.”

“It’s not like she’s speaking the way she spoke, but she is vocalizing and making progress every day,” Pia Carusone, Ms. Giffords’s chief of staff, said in a telephone interview on Sunday. “She’s working very hard. She’s determined. It’s a tight schedule. A copy of it is hanging on her door.”

Outside specialists say it remains unclear, despite the hopeful early signs, what functions in Ms. Giffords’s mind were affected by the traumatic injuries she suffered when she was shot at point-blank range on Jan. 8 at a constituent event in Tucson.

It is not uncommon for patients with a similar injury to have trouble communicating or undergo personality changes, brain specialists say. Everything from ambition and concentration to short-term memory and social inhibitions can be affected, doctors say.

But relatives and friends who have been at Ms. Giffords’s side as she undergoes rehabilitation at a hospital in Houston said in interviews and e-mail exchanges that though her recovery was slow and exhausting, it was marked by significant progress.

Ms. Carusone said that on Sunday afternoon, Ms. Giffords’s husband, Capt. Mark E. Kelly, put the congresswoman on the phone to talk to his twin brother and fellow astronaut, Scott, who is aboard the International Space Station.

“She said, ‘Hi, I’m good,’ ” Ms. Carusone said.

With the help of therapists at TIRR Memorial Hermann in Houston, the congresswoman known for her active, outdoorsy ways now labors through the halls clutching a shopping cart and does squats and repetitive motions to build her muscles, her mother, Gloria, said in an enthusiastic e-mail she sent about a week ago to friends that recounted her daughter’s progress. Others who have visited Ms. Giffords recently have left similarly upbeat.

Aides conduct bedside briefings for her, telling her about the events unfolding in Egypt, for instance, and the decision by Senator Jon Kyl, Republican of Arizona, not to run for re-election next year.

“We tell her everything that’s going on,” Ms. Carusone said. “Don’t get the idea she’s speaking in paragraphs, but she definitely understands what we’re saying and she’s verbalizing.”

In long days that begin with breakfast at 7, Ms. Giffords, 40, has beaten one of her nurses at tic-tac-toe and transformed herself, her mother wrote, from “kind of a limp noodle” to someone who is “alert, sits up straight with good posture (in fact anyone in the room observing unconsciously sucks it up and throws back their shoulders) and is working very hard.”

Ms. Giffords’s mother says doctors are regularly surprised by her latest achievement. They say, “She did WHAT?” she wrote in her e-mail, adding that “Little Miss Overachiever is healing very fast.”

Reached by telephone on Sunday, the congresswoman’s mother offered a one-word assessment of her daughter’s road to recovery. “As far as Gabby’s progress, you can quote me as saying, ‘Yippee!’ ” she said.

The rehabilitation center referred requests for comment to Ms. Giffords’s staff.

CONTINUED...
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22 comments // Congresswoman Gabby Giffords Labors to Speak Again

  • overbite
  • whoabird
    • +2
      whoabird  

    • this update is incredibly encouraging. even in this condition, she's still showing us just how amazing she can be. wishing nothing but the best to her and her family

    • 1 year ago
  • chrisntom
    • +2
      chrisntom  

    • does it seem good that Rep. Giffords is healing quickly and J. KYL is thinking of retiring??? we are so happy for her and her family and especially the people of Arizona::::what a wakeup call...next project force McCain out

    • 1 year ago
  • Wolverineusmm
  • bambuu
    • +3
      bambuu  

    • My mind, body and spirit are strong
      I take time each day to rejuvenate and recharge
      I draw from deep well of peace and calm
      I breathe in strength and release my fears
      I go after my heart's deep desires
      I can accomplish anything I focus on my goal and have the strength to make it happen
      I choose to be unstoppable I am strong I act in spite of my fears
      I am bigger than my concerns and worries
      I can do anything I put my mind to
      Each day I am getting stronger
      I can take care of myself
      The strength of others inspires me daily
      I trust my intuition and live a courageous life
      - Ari Castillo

      This is for you Rep. Giffords; your strength is an inspiration for us all too never give up.

      Happy Valentine's Day to you and your husband.

    • 1 year ago
  • Slfriend79
  • Nick19
    • +3
      Nick19  

    • Simply amazing after all of this. Its somewhat disheartening to hear how once eloquent speakers are suddenly reduced to elementary standards of speaking but hopefully she recovers her ability to speak fully again.

    • 1 year ago
  • Mr_Brainwash
  • Blueshound9
    • +6
      Blueshound9  

    • This woman just blows me away.

      I can't imagine the strength it takes to not only fight off the reaper but to come back as strong as she has to the point that she can now speak? Even a couple words is more than anyone would have hoped for when this first happened.

      Wow, Just WOW!

    • 1 year ago
  • twinite
    • +6
      twinite  

    • Baby steps....you have to learn to walk before you can learn to run(figuratively), and while it's impossible to say how much she'll ultimately regain, I am totally confident that this lady is distend to run.

    • 1 year ago
  • treewolf39
  • randallr01
  • randallr01
  • ArchDruid
  • freecrack
    • 0
      freecrack  
    • ArchDruid:

      so far in the last few weeks she has accomplished more than congress had.she can return.even if she is a vegitable, she at least would have an excuse for lack of functioning

    • 1 year ago
  • demsbeans527
  • ze
  • Varex_Sythe
  • EthicalVegan
    • +6
      EthicalVegan  
    • Varex_Sythe:

      Incredulous and Varex_Sythe....

      I am so glad I COULD post some good news here, for a change. Obviously, for Rep. Giffords, every single day is filled with possibilities, hope and hard work. She's fortunate to be able to have the care necessary.

      Hope everybody who reads this article feels an uplifting of spirit. And do tell your loved ones that you love them.

    • 1 year ago
  • treewolf39
  • Incredulous
  • EthicalVegan
    • +3
      EthicalVegan  

    • CONTINUED...

      PART TWO...

      Dr. David Langer, an associate professor of neurosurgery at the Cushing Neuroscience Institutes at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y., who is not treating Ms. Giffords, pointed to encouraging signs.

      “She’s obviously communicating, obviously verbal,” he said. The gunshot wound, he said, “probably didn’t irreversibly damage her speech center.”

      “Until she’s really talking, giving a speech,” Dr. Langer said, “you won’t know if there’s a subtle speech problem. But it sounds like with rehabilitation, with time, she ought to be very functional.”

      The use of singing, he said, is a standard technique to help restore speech in people with brain injuries. (It is sometimes used to help treat stuttering, Dr. Langer said, citing the movie “The King’s Speech” in which King George VI sang to overcome his speech impediment.) The part of the brain that controls singing is not the same as the one that controls speech, though it is close.

      Dr. Langer also said it was good news that Ms. Giffords was walking. “People’s ultimate endpoints are often based on how rapidly they improve,” he said. “If there’s rapid progress, the recovery potential is much higher. It sounds like she hasn’t plateaued yet and is improving really quickly.”

      The specialized clinic that is helping Ms. Giffords recover has several gymnasiums equipped for people with spinal and brain injuries, as well as a swimming pool for therapy. The main hallway is lined with large photographs of former patients who have made spectacular recoveries, among them Kevin Everett, a former National Football League player who suffered a spinal injury.

      There are plaques with the inspiring tales of the survivors next to the photos. One shows a man hunting ducks in a wheelchair, his shotgun up and a dog by his side. Another is a bride on her wedding day, who had suffered a traumatic brain injury two years before.

      Therapists push patients in wheelchairs along the hallways. Some brain-injury patients who have had parts of their skulls removed, like Ms. Giffords, wear helmets to protect their brains. (In Ms. Giffords’s case, her mother said, doctors are planning to reinstall a section of her cranium at the end of the month, well ahead of schedule.)

      Mockups of stairs, a kitchen and a washing machine help patients relearn basic skills. A therapist encouraged one patient to try moving his leg and was caught by an unexpected kick. She winced as she said, “Good, Jim!”

      Ms. Giffords is receiving similar encouragement, by doting therapists and a network of friends, some of them from the political world.

      Brad Holland, a Tucson lawyer and old friend, has been a regular presence at her bedside. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, has spent the night in the congresswoman’s room in what Gloria Giffords called a “sleepover.”

      A visit by Representative Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic minority leader, is planned soon, and the first President George Bush, who lives in Houston and visited with Captain Kelly recently, may stop by for a visit as well, those close to the congresswoman say.

      Despite some obvious signs of progress for Ms. Giffords, experts offer some caution.

      The human brain has what amounts to redundant circuits for some simple tasks, like walking, and it is possible for patients to make rapid progress on those skills and still have trouble with mental work and speaking, doctors said.

      “There are backup systems in the brain for the more basic functions that have been around longer in human beings,” said Dr. Jonathan Fellus, the director of the Brain Injury Program at the Kessler Institute for Rehabilitation in New Jersey. “Conversely, for things such as language, which are uniquely human, it’s a highly specialized and delicate network that doesn’t get reconstructed so easily.”

      But those close to Ms. Giffords remain optimistic that her recovery will be dramatic.

      Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Democrat of Florida, was at Ms. Giffords’s bedside in Tucson on Jan. 12 when she first opened her eyes. She was visiting Ms. Giffords again, in Houston, last Monday when she asked for toast with her oatmeal.

      “It is an excellent development and a great indicator of the progress of her recovery,” she said.

      Ms. Wasserman Schultz predicted that her friend would one day walk back into the House chamber.

      Marc Lacey reported from Phoenix, and James C. McKinley Jr. from Houston. Denise Grady contributed reporting from New York.

    • 1 year ago
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