First Pictures of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords Since Shooting, Walking on Her Own

[kpete]

Source: ABC

By GINA SUNSERI and RUSSELL GOLDMAN
HOUSTON April 27, 2011

A fragile but determined Rep. Gabrielle Giffords walked one careful step at a time today up the steps of a plane that will take her Florida to watch her husband blast off on the final mission of the space shuttle Endeavor..

The gritty walk by Giffords, who was wearing a padded medical helmet, was her first public steps since being shot in the head at a public event in January.

The Arizona congresswoman left TIRR Memorial Hermann Hospital and boarded a waiting NASA plane at Ellington Airport in Houston.

Giffords was spotted leaving the hospital in a wheelchair and with her face covered before being driven to the airport. At the airport, she walked under her own power and without assistance from the car to the plane stairway and slowly up the steps.

Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/US/pictures-gabrielle-giffords-walking-heads-shuttle-launch/story?id=13469566

[panader0]

1. Go Gabby!! My congresswoman!

[Sonoman]

9. And kudos to TIRR.

Did I ever tell you that I spent two years there? They have the best Head people on the planet.

Sonoman

[Historic NY]

2. Go Gabby.

[BlueIris]

3. Come on back to us, Rep. Giffords.

Someone is keeping your chair warm for you, I'm sure.

[midnight]

4. K&R

[SoapBox]

5. You go girl!

...bravo.

[Uncle Joe]

6. Good for Gabby, best wishes to her.

Thanks for the thread, kpete.

[Bigmack]

7. Big crying jag here...

all these milestones take me back to Ms. Bigmack's recovery.

Overcoming Traumatic Brain Injury is not a roller-coaster ride.... it's a bungee-jump experience. Roller-coasters can't take you nearly high or low enough to compare with coming back from brain injury. Roller coasters are smooooooth compared to the peaks and valleys the patient and family experience.

Don't expect too much from her... but hope like hell!

[Lasher]

20. I'm just thrilled to read she walked under her own power and without assistance

from the car to the plane stairway and up the steps into the plane. What an amazing recovery!

Of course we hope for more but who could have initially dared hope she would ever come this far?

I am sorry for Ms. Bigmack's misfortune, but thank you for sharing your experience. I know you can relate to what Gabby and her family are going through.

[timefortherevolution]

8. An amazing miracle. Just amazing.

[indepat]

13. Courageous Gabby embodies the miraculousness of the human spirit

:thumbsup:

[rasputin1952]

10. ...

:kick:

[LibertyFox]

11. Wonderful!

Admittedly I haven't looked for it but I've been impressed with the level of dignity and privacy given to Rep. Giffords in her recovery.

Best wishes to her and her family!

[Keith Bee]

12. Good for her!

Enthusiastic K&R

[Bluzmann57]

14. Toughest woman alive?

Yep. Heck, maybe the toughest person alive. Go Gabby!

[Betsy Ross]

15. NASA plane? Oh No!

Someone's going to go after the cost of her flight...

[trud]

16. I suspect the families of the astronauts

get various privileges. I will always resent the vicious treatment NASA gave prospective women astronauts early on, so I can't really bring myself to say anything nice about them now, but I am not worked up about this situation.

I am not seeing Gaby in that photo though, just a rather amorphous blob. Maybe others have better eyes.

[progressoid]

17. While I celebrate her recovery,

I kind of think she wants some privacy.

[applegrove]

18. Bless her.

[glinda]

19. Oh man. Major blessings from the planets on her recovery. This still makes me

terribly terribly sad. My heart breaks for her struggles.

[barbtries]

21. if anyone can go on to thrive

after such a debilitating injury, i think it is this woman. she's an inspiration and i'm in tears thinking about all she has had to, and will continue, to go through.

[JNelson6563]

22. She is an inspiration!

I'm telling you, if ever I start to feel overwhelmed or sorry for myself, I will think of her and push on. Any problems I may encounter will be so small compared to what she has overcome.

Julie

[No Elephants]

23. Walked unaided? The power of her love for her husband put her on that plane.

[LaPera]

24. Cheers for an amazingly strong compassionate democratic woman!

[ontime1969]

25. were happy here in Tucson about this

Go Gabby

[politicasista]

26. Bless Gabby n/t

[The Nexus]

27. For the video, go here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=385x578198

[Honeycombe8]

28. What a brave woman. I hope she can recover fully. I don't know if that's possible.

But I hope so.