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Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords shot in head


Balta1701

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sorry if this is covered, but I don't have the time to root through 44 pages... I haven't seen anything in any of the articles I've read, but what do they expect to be her mental capacity? I don't mean this to be insensitive at all, but it was obviously a traumatic brain injury and haven't seen what expectations were.

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QUOTE (SoxFan562004 @ Jan 21, 2011 -> 07:10 PM)
sorry if this is covered, but I don't have the time to root through 44 pages... I haven't seen anything in any of the articles I've read, but what do they expect to be her mental capacity? I don't mean this to be insensitive at all, but it was obviously a traumatic brain injury and haven't seen what expectations were.

At this point, no one really seems to know. Doctors are particularly unsure about whether she'll have any lasting issues with movement on her right side, since the bullet went through the left hemisphere of the brain.

 

Most of the things she's done so far are motor skills, which are the parts that weren't hurt as much. The thing that was hit directly was the speech center, which is why she hasn't spoken yet, they're not going to push her much on that.

 

According to the doctors she's made very strong progress so far, but it's not uncommon for brain injury victims to make strong progress and then plateau for a while while the body adapts to the areas that have been damaged.

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Good f***ing lord at the last 15 posts or so before the brain injury stuff. Seriously guys. I'm going to lock this thread if I see that s*** again. This is just getting retarded.

Edited by lostfan
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QUOTE (SoxFan562004 @ Jan 21, 2011 -> 07:10 PM)
sorry if this is covered, but I don't have the time to root through 44 pages... I haven't seen anything in any of the articles I've read, but what do they expect to be her mental capacity? I don't mean this to be insensitive at all, but it was obviously a traumatic brain injury and haven't seen what expectations were.

According to a report I heard this morning, Giffords has shown some sluggishness to responses on her right side, which does suggest some degree of paralysis on that side.

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In the weeks and days before the shooting rampage in Tucson, suspect Jared Lee Loughner surfed the Internet on his computer in what investigators believe was an effort to prepare for his alleged assassination attempt, law enforcement sources familiar with the investigation said.

 

Loughner pulled up several Web sites about lethal injections and solitary confinement in prison, said the sources, who asked to be anonymous because the investigation is ongoing. He also viewed Internet sites about political assassins, according to an analysis of Loughner's computer that was completed by investigators last week, the sources said.

 

 

....

Prosecutors hope to use the information they have found on Loughner's computer, along with notes seized in his home, to indicate that Loughner, 22, was not insane and knew right from wrong. They have turned over to the defense the information they obtained from the computer, as well as discs containing about 250 interviews conducted by investigators.

 

"The impression investigators have is that he was trying to educate himself on assassinations and also research the consequences," said one source close to the investigation. The source said Loughner pulled up sites that explained the process and effects of lethal injections.

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  • 4 months later...

I did not enjoy reading this.

I asked Giffords' staff if they could explain, in terms that even a newspaper columnist could understand, exactly where Giffords stands.

 

For example, how well is she able to communicate with them?

 

"We do a lot of inferring with her because her communication skills have been impacted the most," Carusone said. "If you think of it as someone who is able to communicate with you clearly, it is easy to test them. You can ask them a series of questions, and you can get clear answers back. Whereas with Gabby, what we've been able to infer and what we believe is that her comprehension is very good. I don't know about percentage-wise or not, but it's close to normal, if not normal."

 

Does her struggle to communicate mean that she's not using complete sentences?

 

"Exactly," Carusone said. "She is borrowing upon other ways of communicating. Her words are back more and more now, but she's still using facial expressions as a way to express. Pointing. Gesturing. Add it all together, and she's able to express the basics of what she wants or needs. But, when it comes to a bigger and more complex thought that requires words, that's where she's had the trouble."

 

Is that frustrating for her?

 

"Absolutely," Carusone said. "When she is trying to come up with a word or a sentence and she's clearly struggling, putting everything she's got into it, and sometimes she's not successful. When she is, there's a relief that comes across her face that she has found the word. But when she can't come up with that, it is absolute frustration."

 

 

 

...

"She's living. She's alive. But if she were to plateau today, and this was as far as she gets, it would not be nearly the quality of life she had before," arusone said. "There's no comparison. All that we can hope for is that she won't plateau today and that she'll keep going and that when she does plateau, it will be at a place far away from here.

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  • 1 month later...
QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Aug 1, 2011 -> 09:07 PM)
Representative Giffords voted on the debt ceiling deal tonight.

 

:)

 

Great story, however, I have to ask -- at the risk of coming off in a very negative light -- should she be?

 

I mean, is she 'normal' enough and of sound mind/body to be making policy decisions that affect the future of this country, for better or for worse? Or is she being told what she should do by others at this point?

 

The reason I ask is because when that injury initially happened, I was pretty sure she'd have some severe brain damage for life, if she even lived. She obviously lived...but what's her state of mind like these days? Looking at pictures of her, she doesn't look quite...right, and I know it's bad to judge people by the way they look. I don't want this to come off as indecent or anything, but I think it's a legitimate question.

Edited by Y2HH
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