Congresswoman Giffords released from Houston hospital

From CNN: U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords has been released from a Texas hospital where she has been recovering from a January gunshot wound to the head. She soon will start outpatient treatment at the same facility, the hospital said Wednesday.

Giffords, D-Arizona, will move into the home of her husband, NASA astronaut and Navy Capt. Mark Kelly, in League City, Texas, according to TIRR Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston.

"Congresswoman Giffords has shown clear, continuous improvement from the moment she arrived at TIRR five months ago," Dr. Gerard Francisco, the hospital’s chief medical officer, said in a news release. "We are very excited that she has reached the next phase of her rehabilitation and can begin outpatient treatment. We have no doubt that she will continue to make significant strides in her recovery."

Six people were killed and 13 others, including Giffords, were wounded when a gunman opened fire in front of a Safeway grocery store in Tucson, Arizona, on January 8.

Jared Lee Loughner, 22, is charged in the shooting. A federal judge ruled last month that he is not competent to stand trial, based on the results of court-ordered medical evaluations of Loughner. The U.S. attorney general will take custody of Loughner for a period not to exceed four months, during which he will be taken to a hospital for further evaluation to determine if he will become competent to stand trial.

Rep. Gabby Giffords releases 1st photos since being shot

Two photos of a smiling Rep. Gabrielle Giffords were released early Sunday by her office, her hair shorn short but few other telling signs of her gunshot wound to the head.

The Facebook photos, the first clear snapshots of Giffords since the shooting five months ago, showed how far she has come since a gunman shot her in the left side of her forehead during a constituent meet-and-greet in a Safeway parking lot in Tucson.
But her spokeswoman, Pia Carusone, has cautioned that Giffords still has a long way to go in her recovery.

The photos show the congresswoman outside. She smiled directly into the camera in one, while she sat next to a woman in the other while smiling downward.

Giffords has been in a Houston rehab facility since two weeks after the Jan. 8 shooting. Six people were killed and 13 were injured, including Giffords.

Carusone said Friday that Giffords could be released sometime this month.

She said doctors and family are considering "many factors" while making the critical next-step decision to release Giffords from TIRR Memorial Hermann, the hospital where she has been undergoing intensive daily rehabilitation since late January.

Read more on MSNBC.

Congresswoman Gabby Giffords progress

With Arizona Congresswoman Gabby Giffords expected to attend her husband’s shuttle launch later this week, the Arizona Republic reports a bit on her recovery so far.

“Giffords speaks most often in a single word or declarative phrase: ‘love you,’ ‘awesome,’ even ‘get out’ to doctors... Longer sentences frustrate Giffords. She must search her brain for the words she wants, which feels like trying to pull out the name of a familiar face you can't quite place."

She says she misses Tucson and when she finally gets back there she wants to "climb a mountain" - as is she isn't already.

She's apparently showing a lot of independence - from which medications she will take, the t-shirt she'll wear for physical therapy, to what she thinks about her breakfast options.

She pushes a grocery cart up and down hospital halls to help relearn muscle use. She also works with a bowling ball and indoor golf exercises.

The paper also notes that she's left-handed now.

Go Gabby - go!