They’ve released a promo video of Diane Sawyer’s Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords interview. There is also footage of her recovering in the hospital.
I was struck by how different she sounded in her speech before the shooting. Her voice now is much different. Excerpts from her book have been released. They mention she lost 50% of her vision from the shooting and her right arm doesn’t work. She’s been through hell for sure. I’m not sure what they mean by 50% vision loss. Total vision loss in one eye is 50% loss of total vision. Or do they mean 50% from both eyes? Maybe they’ll clear it up in the interview.
This is just a starting thread. I’ll try and bump it Monday right before the interview airs.
I didn’t want to clutter the OP with my own thoughts.
Gabby has beaten the odds. Normally a brain injury this severe would have left her almost in a vegetative state. To be walking and talking at all is a tremendous achievement.
I’m sensing a political PR job here. Note that Gabby wrote one page of this new book. :dubious: They are calling this one page a book chapter. This is a current member of the House of Representatives. Someone that may run for office in six months. Politically they want to make her recovery seem as inspiring and complete as possible. I’m suspicious about what the real story is. How impaired is her communication skills? Can she understand the complicated briefings required of a Congressperson? Is she capable of making a campaign speech or debating the issues?
My office administers FMLA (Family Medical Leave Act). It can be heartbreaking. Employees get in car wrecks, have heart attacks, cancer, and even shootings. It’s tough getting back to work. We grant 90 days for FMLA. Then at the department’s approval another 90 days can be granted. That’s a very generous six months off the job. We strongly advise employees to submit a claim against the company’s disability policy if there’s any question that they may not recover in time. The disability insurance carrier will handle the claim for Social Security disability too.
Basically Giffords entire two year seat will be vacant (she was shot a week after being sworn in). No one even knows if she’ll run again in 2012. I sympathize with her situation but she’s no different than any other employee with a major health problem. If you can’t do the job within a reasonable time then someone else has to do it.
It’ll be interesting to hear what she has to say. I’m sure it will be carefully orchestrated so any impairment will not be too noticeable.
I never really thought too much about the political side of this. But, would her situation fall under FMLA or more like Workers Comp type rules? I could see an argument that she was targeted because of her position. I’ve obviously not put a lot of thought into this (:)), but just a thought.
I was using FMLA as an example. Employers with 50 or more employees are covered by it.
I was trying to make the point that if Giffords had a normal job she’d already be out of work and on disability. At least for awhile. People on disability can reenter the work force when they recover and can work.
Congress has its own rules. Giffords can hold her seat the entire two years. Whether she’s able to do the peoples work or not.
Starts in 14 minutes on ABC. Been waiting over ten months for this. Back last January I would have never believed this woman would be doing an interview. Even living seemed pretty iffy.
That was so powerful. I had no idea Mark had filmed Gabby in the hospital and rehab. His strength and optimism went a long way towards helping her recover.
Those therapists in Rehab are something else. I still remember my month in rehab after my knee operation. I had been using a hand crutch for over a year. Had to totally relearn to walk without it and also rehab a bad shoulder and back from using the crutch. Had one month in patient rehab and then three more months out patient. Owe everything to those therapists.
Who knows, maybe in another couple years Gabby will recover to a point similar to Bob Woodruff. She certainly seems to have the drive and determination. Especially with Mark cheering her on.
Gabby is talking in basically one word sentences. Maybe at a six grade vocabulary level right now? That’s a rough estimate. I’m sure the therapists have tested her, but none of that was mentioned in tonights interview.
I think her intellect is still there. But, her spoken vocabulary has a long way to go. Considering the shape she was in last January that’s still a miraculous recovery.
It’s still early. It took Bob Woodruff three years to get back to reporting. He still has issues with short term memory. But he’s beaten the odds. Very few brain injury patients regain what Bob did.
She’s had an amazing recovery and it was great to see her doing so well.
One small however, though. It made me feel oddly voyeuristic to watch the home videos her husband made of her recovery. I tried thinking of it like this shows how far she’s had to come to get where she is now and let’s all celebrate her progress…but it felt exploitative somehow. Kinda oogy.
Great progress, but some much further to go. At one point, towards the end, when she was trying to say something about wanting to improve more, she reminded a bit of Stands with a Fist in DwW when she was first trying to speak with Dunbar.
I guess Giffords was serious about staying in politics. She started robo-calls last week in her district.
I admire her determination on a personal level. She’s overcome a lot.
However, politically I hope someone has the guts to oppose her in a respectful way. She has to prove that she’s capable of discussing complex issues and engaging in at least a informal debate. The vetting process in any election is crucial.
She has to file for reelection by next May and then campaign through October.
You can’t give someone a free pass because you feel sorry for them. There are only 435 House Members that represent 312,613,916 people. Every single member must pull their own weight. Especially now with the world economy going under. We must have quality representation. http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html
correction after reading that article more closely. I guess their aren’t robo-calls yet. She posted the audio message on her official facebook page. Seems likely the robo-calls are next. Not that many people over forty-five pay any attention to facebook.
I noticed that too. There was a little girl quality to her personality. She was really clinging to Mark. Which is understandable. Mark has been the rock that she could lean on throughout this crises.
The difference in the vibrant powerful Congresswoman footage they showed and the frail gunshot victim was pretty sad. Made me so angry that some piece of filth did that to her and the other victims.
Back last January I would have never believed this woman would be doing an interview. Even living seemed pretty iffy.