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By Kathy Arnold
The staff of injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., who is recovering from a gunshot wound to the forehead, is speaking "more and more every day." Giffords is currently undergoing rigorous speech therapy at Houston's TIRR Memorial Hermann. Press secretary C.J. Karamargin told the Houston Chronicle yesterday that Giffords had begun speaking "recently," often using more than one word.
He added that Giffords also ordered toast for breakfast one morning. "(She's talking) more and more every day," Karamargin said. "She is improving in all areas." Karamargin however, did not reveal the words or phrases spoken by the congresswoman.
The TIRR doctors are also happy with Giffords recovery, which they said is occurring at "lightning speed." Giffords was shot a month ago during a gunman's rampage in Tucson. Six people, including a 9-year-old girl and a federal judge, were killed in the attack when gunman opened fire on the crowd when Giffords was meeting with constituents on January 8.
On January 26, Giffords was transferred to The Institute for Research and Rehabilitation, the Memorial Hermann Hospital System's elite rehab center. Before that she spent two weeks in the intensive care unit of University Medical Center in Tucson and was admitted to Memorial Hermann's Texas Medical Center hospital ICU for five days.
No TIRR doctors said anything about Giffords' apparent speaking breakthrough. Karamargin said that Giffords is slowly regaining her speaking ability due to her work with hospital staff on "all sorts of language and speech exercises" as part of the rehabilitation process. "It's a combination effort — her team pushing her and the congresswoman pushing herself. They're both working hard, and it's paying off," Karamargin said.
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