Giffords shows signs of recovery

TUCSON, Arizona (AP):

DOCTORS SAID Monday that Arizona Republican Gabrielle Giffords' brain remains swollen, but the pressure is not increasing - a good sign for the congresswoman's recovery.

Neurosurgeon Dr Michael Lemole of Tucson's University Medical Center said Giffords' condition two days after surgery for a gunshot wound to the head remains stable. He said that swelling from such an injury typically peaks around the third day, so doctors "can breathe a collective sigh of relief" after that.

Dr Peter Rhee said surgeons had seen many encouraging signs. On Sunday and Monday, Giffords was able to respond to a verbal command by raising two fingers with her left hand.

"When she did that, we were having a party in there," Rhee said, adding that Giffords has also managed to give doctors a thumbs-up and has been reaching for her breathing tube, even while sedated. "That's a purposeful movement. That's a great thing. She's always grabbing for the tube," Rhee said.

Rhee said the swelling in her face is "remarkably improved" and that her kidney function was "great."

"You get shot in the head, you should be dead - and she didn't die. She is thinking. She can hear and follow commands. This is remarkable," Rhee said. "So far so good. Like I said, this is as good as it gets."

Eight still hospitalised

Of those injured in the deadly shooting Saturday in Tucson, eight are still hospitalised. Giffords is in critical condition, five are in serious condition, and two are in good condition.

Recovering from a gunshot wound to the head depends on the bullet's path, and while doctors are optimistic Giffords' odds, it can take weeks to months to tell the damage.

Doctors say the bullet travelled the length of the left side of the Arizona congresswoman's brain, entering the back of the skull and exiting the front.

Fortunately, it stayed on one side of her brain, not hitting the so-called "eloquent areas" in the brain's centre where such wounds almost always prove fatal.

Importantly, Giffords was responding nonverbally Sunday to simple commands in the emergency room - things like "squeeze my hand".

That implies "a very high level of functioning in the brain," Lemole said.

Now, her biggest threat is brain swelling. Surgeons removed half of her skull to give the tissues room to expand without additional bruising, Lemole said.

That bone is being preserved and can be reimplanted once the swelling abates, a technique the military uses with war injuries, added his colleague and trauma surgeon Dr Peter Rhee.