When told the news, according to Kelly, Giffords reacted with a fist-pump and a single word: "Awesome.". It has overshadowed the shuttle's science mission and even Obama's expected presence at the launch. From the bloodied figure rushed to hospital who had part of her skull removed to relieve brain pressure, she has taken firm steps towards not just survival but recovery. Gabby Giffords, the former congresswoman from Arizona who was shot and wounded in a 2011 mass shooting, urged Americans to summon resilience … At first falsely reported dead, it quickly became clear that Giffords, 41, was clinging desperately to life. "It is a simple equation: time is brain," says Madhok. "She was also not in a coma for very long and that indicates there is probably a lot of healthy brain there.". To me, that's already a real miracle." But perhaps they should recognise it has already happened. Though Kelly told CBS News's Katie Couric last week that Giffords's personality was "100% there", it is clear she still bears a grave injury. She can write a little but has to use her left hand, not her usual right one, because movement on the right side of her body is seriously impaired. Indeed, it is telling that, despite the vast interest in her recovery and her trip to Florida, not a single photograph of Giffords has been released since the shooting. "She is medically able and well enough to travel," said Dong Kim, director of the Mischer Neuroscience Institute at her hospital. President Obama himself began the process, announcing during his memorial speech the first signs of progress with the words: "Gabby opened her eyes for the first time. But it has been a difficult path for Giffords to get to Florida: her Texas physicians only gave the trip the go-ahead last week. When Kelly blasts off into space under Giffords's gaze tomorrow, many Americans will still be longing for a happy ending for the couple. "You really have to be patient and this experience has taught me a lot of patience," Kelly said. The remarkable thing about the brain – especially in someone relatively young – is that healthy parts can learn to take over the functions of damaged areas. But her slow improvement is gripping the nation, Mark Kelly holds the hand of his wife Gabrielle Giffords in hospital. The previously little-known Democratic congresswoman for Arizona rose to fame in January when a lone gunman, Jared Loughner, attacked a meet-and-greet session in Tucson, killing six people and putting a bullet through Giffords's brain. June 13, 2011, 1:05 PM Photograph: Matt Stroshane/Getty Images, killing six people and putting a bullet through Giffords's brain. Photograph: Reuters, Mark Kelly, who is commanding the final mission of the space shuttle Endeavour. That attitude sums up much of the positive news that has leaked out about Giffords's progress and the happy spin put on it by an American media eager to wrest something good from an unbearably bleak event. Other factors have played a role in Giffords's survival and progress. Among them, carefully hidden from public view, will be one very special pair of eyes: those of Kelly's wife, Gabrielle Giffords, whose presence at the launch is nothing short of a modern medical marvel. She even made it on to Time's 100 Most Influential list. Yet the key thing is to see what "recovery" really means and who should be making that judgment. "The initial reports were perhaps a little too optimistic," says Kritis Dasgupta, a brain surgeon at the National Rehabilitation Hospital in Washington. Slowly, shocked Americans began to track her progress, not daring to hope for the best until, bit by bit, good news trickled out. She takes time to articulate and form thoughts. She has been put on a global pedestal. Though walking, talking, and reading are still a challenge, she has become a relentlessly effective activist. Gabby Giffords' Rosy Recovery Needs Reality Check, Say Experts Brain injury experts predict lifelong struggle for Arizona congresswoman. Gabby Giffords speaks four years into her recovery - YouTube One man who knows about this intimately is Ezriel Kornel, a neurosurgeon who helped treat Jim Brady, Ronald Reagan's press secretary, who was shot in the head during the failed 1981 assassination attempt on the president. "The brain in someone relatively young has the ability to relearn," he says. In recent weeks, almost $500,000 in donations has poured into her virtually nonexistent re-election campaign. Central to the moment was Giffords's astonishing struggle to survive her horrific wound. President Barack Obama travelled to Tucson to lead a nationally televised memorial ceremony. The tragedy sparked intense national mourning in the US and a fierce debate over violent imagery used in political discussion. Although Giffords was already a public figure, she has actually become more of one now that she has been shut away in hospital. But her slow improvement is … When astronaut Mark Kelly blasts off at Cape Canaveral on Friday afternoon, commanding a flight of the space shuttle Endeavour, millions of people will watch him and his crew soar into orbit. But there is still much to do. Looking at where Giffords was on the day of the shooting, she has, in many ways, already recovered more than enough to make anything else a pure bonus. Nor is it the watching American public. That is a process that can go on for years, ensuring gradual improvements may continue for a long time to come. By. Many medical observers think that will be unlikely. "I think it is fantastic, especially as she has endured such a radical procedure as a craniectomy (partial-skull removal)," says Ricky Madhok, a neurosurgeon at Cushing Neuroscience Institutes in Long Island, New York. "If the trajectory of the bullet had been a couple of degrees off, then it could have been a completely different situation," says Dasgupta. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images, Medics at the scene of the shooting in Tucson, Arizona, in January 2011. "She will most likely be able to be a human being who appreciates her life and her loved ones. Loughner's shot went in through her forehead and out the back of her head. The speaking part of her day often involves singing or music therapy, as a damaged brain often retains that ability better than pure speech. Then there was the skill of the team of surgeons in Arizona. "So, just giving her time to compose her thoughts and put the words and sentences together is, you know, at this phase in her recovery, really what she needs. 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