Why am I thinking of Lisbeth Salander?
I think the closest would have been Tucson Heart Hospital (@ River and Stone, for those who know Tucson), which (only from a personal experience perspective) would have been the LAST place to take her. UMC has a VERY good repuatation in the state (my sister worked there for years as a radiology tech). Heart Hospital has neither a helipad (though they tried to get one - the neighbors, if you’d poardon the phrase, shot down the proposal) nor the facilities to handle such a case. Plus not the best reputation in Tucson, either.
One of the posters on the local fishwrap’s website said that it was just like a Dem to make a woman who has been at death’s door give him a backrub. It might have been a whoosh, but from what I know of the posters there, I kinda doubt it.
In any case, that’s exceedingly good news. I don’t do what an orthodox type would consider “praying,” but whatever it is, she (and all the others who are suffering as a result of this outrage) are included.
I wish they would keep a daily log of actual progress. The nation is stressed enough as it is and a solid calendar of improvement would be a nice thing to hear about.
The closest hospital to the shooting site is Northwest Medical Center at La Cholla and Orange Grove, less than 4 miles away. However, as noted, UMC is the metro area’s only trauma center, so the congresswoman was airlifted there.
You’d think I’d remember that, since I believe that Northwest’s the hospital my father died at. Still, Heart’s only 3.09 miles (according to Mapquest), so I think they might be about the same distance from the shooting scene.
It would be nice in some ways, but they need their privacy. And I think there’s going to be less and less news as we get farther away from the shooting. If all goes well from here, there will be slow healing, physical therapy, and things like that. Months from now, they’ll restore the pieces of her skull, try to get her to sit in a chair, and start to assess what the effects of the damage to her brain are going to be. I’m sure there will be public updates once in a while.
Giffords mom has been nearly invisible. I found one mention in usatoday that Giffords mom was in the limo with Kelly and Pres Obama.
I guess she’s a very, very private person. Isn’t Giffords’ dad deceased?
They have over 250 cops and FBI working the case. Gee , I hope they find the guy that did it.
I wonder if they’re counting everyone who shared his YouTube vids on their facebook page as somebody “working on the case”. They’re helping the economy of college psych professors as well inviting numerous ones on shows to discuss crazy college students in general.
I’m curious what it means when they say someone is “working the case”. Are they all exclusively focusing all of their efforts and resources into just this one case? Or is this in addition to everything else they have going on? I can see how you might say a cop or an agent is “working a case” because he’s, say, taking half an hour during the day skimming message boards to see if anyone is talking about doing anything similar or in response to the shooting (you can scoff, but hey, sometimes people have crappy COMSEC and talk about their plans to strangers on the internet)
Alternately, a cop might be said to be working the case because he had to pull a shift patrolling around the hospital, assuming they are doing anything of the sort (I don’t work in law enforcement or medicine, so I really don’t know if something like that would be the norm for an elected official being in the hospital after an attempted killing, particularly if the shooter was already in custody)
Yes, maybe about as close. However, there would be more intersections and more traffic to go to Tucson Heart Hospital. You have to go down Oracle Rd. from Ina all the way to River. From the Safeway to Northwest, it’s just down Oracle one traffic light to Orange Grove, turn west, go across La Canada, and to the rear of Northwest just past La Canada. Much quicker route for an ambulance to transport patients who don’t need the care of a trauma center. Only two traffic lights to deal with instead of 4 or 5. I know that cars must pull over for ambulances and that the ambulances have strobes that can keep traffic lights green along their route, but it’s far fewer cars to have to navigate past along the way.
CNN reports there is a surveillance video.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/01/18/arizona.shooting/index.html?hpt=T1
I’d hope it never gets released. Even reading the description of the shootings is pretty bad. At least it gives authorities an air tight case against Loughner.
I’m still amazed Giffords survived a point blank shot to the face. She beat the odds that day.
husband interview
Giffords is scheduled for Rehab in Houston. She should transfer Friday.
http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/01/19/arizona.shooting/index.html?hpt=T1
This sounds almost too good. I have doubts. It took the ABC Reporter (with the brain injury) months to get near this level of activity. Reading greeting cards, using an iPod? That’s incredible progress.
If this is true, then she’s the luckiest gunshot victim in the world.
Though with his years long documented insanity I doubt they’ll ask for the death penalty.
woodard’s head wound and brain injury was due to an explosion. his skull and brain was more damaged.
from the computer animation that they show of the bullet, rep. giffords was very lucky (blessed, watched over, etc) in the path that it took.
the animation shows the bullet taking a high course from front to back not going more than about 2 to 2.5 inches deep into her brain. her doctors have said that the bullet missed a large blood vessel by .5 inch. within the bullets path there was not much bleeding, and the bone fragments did not penetrated very far.
the bullet exited and took a lot of the energy with it, so the brain didn’t get “shaken up” very much. (woodward had brain shaking because the explosion’s energy was toward his head)
really she had an incredible, very against the odds, head wound. she got help with controlling the blood, and keeping her airway clear very quickly. emergency personnel got there quickly. a first class trama unit near by, and the trama unit was in shift change, doubling the amount of people (doctors, nurses) in it. she was aware the entire time, and her vital signs were good and stable, until she was put under to put in the breathing tube and go to surgery.
she went from being shot, to surgery starting within 50 minutes. that is incredibly fast.
I was heartened to hear that she is reading greeting cards. Although it is unclear when she’ll be able to speak, I had wondered how much verbal ability she was left with. At least it seems she might be able to communicate via a keyboard or in writing until her speech fully returns.
Reports are that she actually stood up today. I’m assuming that’s with a physical therapist supporting her/standing by in case she had balance problems. In one sense, it’s surprising, in another it’s not because they really want to get you upright and moving as soon as possible as lying down too long is very unhealthy for a person.
This is all great news. I hope Jared Loughner is being kept updated on Giffords’s condition and that it is absolutely eating him up inside. Although I doubt he feels anything for the six dead and 13 others injured.