 Portraits of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and federal judge John Roll stand in a makeshift memorial on January 9, 2011 in Tucson, Arizona. AFP photo |
The US congresswoman shot in the head by a would-be assassin during a shooting spree at an Arizona political event is in a critical condition but showing positive signs, medics said Sunday.
Gabrielle Giffords, 40, was in a medically-induced coma but could respond to basic verbal commands, said doctors at the University of Arizona Medical Center, who were "cautiously optimistic" about her recovery chances.
A nine-year-old girl and a federal judge were among six people killed and at least 14 others were wounded before bystanders at the event in Tucson on Saturday grappled a gunman armed with a 9mm Glock pistol to the ground.
Giffords was helped by the fact the bullet did not go through both hemispheres of her brain, traveling instead the length of the left side of her brain, an area that controls speech.
"We're very encouraged by that. We are still in critical condition. Brain swelling at any time can take a turn for the worse," said Michael Lemole, the head neurosurgeon who operated on Giffords.
Trauma chief Peter Rhee cautioned: "We don't know what is going to happen - what her deficits will be in the future or anything like that.
"This wasn't a grazing wound to the brain. This wound travelled the length of the brain on the left side," he said.
Giffords, from President Barack Obama's Democratic Party, was meeting constituents outside a Tucson supermarket Saturday when the gunman shot her at point blank range before spraying bullets on the small crowd.
The motivation for the shooting remained unclear. Loughner, a failed army recruit, had filled the Internet with angry and largely incoherent condemnations of the government.
Gabrielle Giffords, 40, was in a medically-induced coma but could respond to basic verbal commands, said doctors at the University of Arizona Medical Center, who were "cautiously optimistic" about her recovery chances.
A nine-year-old girl and a federal judge were among six people killed and at least 14 others were wounded before bystanders at the event in Tucson on Saturday grappled a gunman armed with a 9mm Glock pistol to the ground.
Giffords was helped by the fact the bullet did not go through both hemispheres of her brain, traveling instead the length of the left side of her brain, an area that controls speech.
"We're very encouraged by that. We are still in critical condition. Brain swelling at any time can take a turn for the worse," said Michael Lemole, the head neurosurgeon who operated on Giffords.
Trauma chief Peter Rhee cautioned: "We don't know what is going to happen - what her deficits will be in the future or anything like that.
"This wasn't a grazing wound to the brain. This wound travelled the length of the brain on the left side," he said.
Giffords, from President Barack Obama's Democratic Party, was meeting constituents outside a Tucson supermarket Saturday when the gunman shot her at point blank range before spraying bullets on the small crowd.
The motivation for the shooting remained unclear. Loughner, a failed army recruit, had filled the Internet with angry and largely incoherent condemnations of the government.
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