Doctors Detail Giffords’s Progress

By DENISE GRADY

HOUSTON — Representative Gabrielle Giffords is “making leaps and bounds” in her neurological recovery, after being shot in the head on Jan. 8 in Tucson, her doctors said Friday at a news conference.

Her memory is good, her speech is improving and her personality has re-emerged, the doctors said. They added that she had started to walk with assistance, and that the tracheotomy tube had been removed from her throat, meaning that her airway was stable and she was able to breathe on her own.

“She is clearly saying what she wants,” said Dr. Dong Kim, director of the Mischer Neuroscience Institute at Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center. “She is starting to string words together. She can repeat anything we say to her; that’s an important neurological recovery fact. It means her primary language area is intact. She can speak in full sentences. She says, ‘I’m tired. I want to go bed,’ just like that. And we can have a conversation with her.”

Dr. Kim said that Ms. Giffords had no memory of the shooting, but that that was normal. The rest of her memory seems to be intact, he said, including her long-term memories and her ability to remember new events and people. He said that doctors and Ms. Giffords’s family had told her what happened to her, and that she understood, but that she had not been told about the others who were killed or wounded.

“Her memory is going to be great,” Dr. Kim said.

Dr. Gerard Francisco, the hospital’s chief medical officer, said that Ms. Giffords had had continuous neurological improvement that had allowed the doctors to keep intensifying her therapy program in terms of both the difficulty and types of therapy.

“She is responding beautifully,” Dr. Francisco said, adding that the most aggressive therapies were geared at improving her speech and walking. He said she spent from three to five hours a day in therapy.

Asked if Ms. Giffords ever laughed, the doctors smiled and nodded emphatically.

Dr. Francisco described her progress “as quite remarkable and better than we expected.”

The doctors said Ms. Giffords understood and took pleasure in the advances she was making. Dr. Imoigele Aisiku, the institute’s director of neurocritical care, said she knew that having the breathing tube removed was a major milestone, and pumped her fist when it was done.

Ms. Giffords appears to have normal vision, the doctors said, even though her injuries included a fractured left eye socket that had to be surgically repaired.

“She has a personality that’s already showing through,” Dr. Kim said. “She’s very upbeat, and focused on getting better. She hasn’t showed depression. She has been very forward looking. Even with speech she’s not showing much frustration. Part of that is because she’s making such progress, getting better on almost a daily basis.”

Dr. Francisco agreed that Ms. Giffords was showing a lot of personality and that she had a good attention span. “I feel I’ve gotten to know her very well,” he said. “We can engage her for a long period of time.”

Asked if Ms. Giffords had any deficits or other problems that seemed likely to be permanent, Dr. Kim said: “I think it’s too early to talk about that. I think she’s going to make an excellent recovery.”

One of Ms. Giffords’s staff members has said that she would probably be taken to Cape Canaveral next month to attend the launch of the space shuttle being led by her husband, the astronaut Mark E. Kelly.

The doctors indicated that it was not a sure thing. “Our No. 1 concern is that it will be safe for her to do that,” Dr. Francisco said.

But Dr. Kim added: “We think she’ll go to the launch. She would like to be there.”

Doctors have yet to rebuild Ms. Giffords’s skull. Nearly half of it was removed during emergency surgery to relieve pressure from brain swelling. Typically, reconstruction is done about three or four months after such an injury, the doctors said. They said they expected to perform the surgery on Ms. Giffords sometime in May. Lacking part of her skull should not make traveling unsafe or prevent her from going to Florida.

Ms. Giffords was one of 19 people shot in January while she was meeting with constituents in a supermarket parking lot in Tucson; six died. The 22-year-old suspect,

, pleaded not guilty in federal court this week to 49 counts stemming from the shooting.