Giffords has made progress but has long road ahead

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Debating opponents. Negotiating compromises. Raising money. The demands of Congress are great for anyone, much less someone recovering from a gunshot to the head like Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

Giffords’ first televised interview showed a lively woman making good progress in recovering from a devastating brain injury yet still struggling mightily to pull out the words she wants. Only 10 months after her injury, brain specialists unconnected with Giffords’ care say she’ll almost certainly continue to improve. But no one can predict how much or how fast.

How the brain rewires itself after trauma — making new connections or recruiting an undamaged area to compensate for a damaged one — is largely a mystery. But most people with severe brain injuries never emerge as exactly the same person they were before, and lingering impairment could make a return to Congress a difficult decision for Giffords and her family.

The stress of the job should get consideration, said Dr. Jordan Grafman, director of the Traumatic Brain Injury Research Laboratory at the Kessler Foundation Research Center in West Orange, N.J.

“A little stress makes us sharp. A lot of stress kills neurons,” said Dr. Grafman, who has long studied penetrating brain injuries but hasn’t examined Giffords. After a severe brain injury, “I really don’t think you’d want to be exposed to the level of stress that you’d be exposed to in Congress. I wouldn’t want to.”

Monday’s interview on ABC was the first opportunity for the public to get a detailed look beyond the reassurances of Giffords’ friends and physicians about how she’s fared since being shot Jan. 8.

Giffords appeared determined and confident, but she struggled to form multiple-word sentences, much less string them together for a detailed conversation. With the help of her husband, Mark Kelly, she said she wouldn’t return to Congress until she was “better.” The filing deadline to run to for re-election to her House seat is May 30.

On Tuesday, Giffords’ staff released on her Facebook page a more complex, minute-long recording made last week, two weeks after the ABC interview. In it, she says wants to get back to work.

“I’m getting stronger. I’m getting better,” Giffords says still somewhat haltingly. She adds, “There is a lot to say. I will speak better.”