The Hill News

Doctors for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) said she continues to near the rehabilitation phase of her recovery process on Monday.

Giffords, one of the victims of the Arizona shooting which wounded thirteen including Giffords and hospitalized six, has been making what her doctors consider very rapid progress. Giffords was the target of the Arizona shooting and suffered a gunshot wound to the head from point blank range. Today University Medical Center Chief of Neurosurgery Dr. Michael Lemole said that Giffords underwent a procedure on Saturday to repair "orbital roof fractures" in her eyes and eye sockets. A separate procedure was also performed over the weekend to remove breathing and nutritional tubes from her face and doctors said that too went well.

The pace of Giffords's steady and fast progress has continued Lemole said. The routine procedures over the weekend went well and the dangerous brain swelling has not increased.

"Every s! ign on the cat scans and just on her physical examinations suggest that we're going in the right direction at this point," Lemole said.

Lemole said that the procedures over the weekend went well and continued to suggest Giffords progress was going well.

"I'm happy to say that within a few hours of the surgery she was waking up and through the weekend she came back to the same baseline she had been before the surgery, that same level interaction she had had with us," Lemole said. "And that's all very good."

Lemole also explained doctors are still preparing Giffords for the third phase of her recovery, the rehabilitation process.

"She tolerated those procedures well, in fact we did them right before Dr. Lemole was finished with his procedure." Dr. Randall S. Friese, a UMC surgeon said.

Last week President Obama announced that Giffords had opened her eyes during a visit by close friends and colleagues. In previous brief! ings doctors confirmed that and cautiously explained that Giff! ords's v ision was probably blurry, akin to the first few minutes of waking up in the morning. Today Lemole said that they think her sight continues to improve as well.

"Our suspicion is that she can see something," Lemole said.

The next big milestone in Giffords recovery is getting to the rehabilitation phase, Lemole said. He added that farther down the recovery road Giffords will have to undergo a skull repair procedure.

"The key we're trying to get her to is rehabilitation so we can get her to the next phase of her recovery," Lemole said.

Lemole said that Giffords's progress suggests that many of her "higher levels of function are somewhat preserved" for Giffords.

Of the near dozen patients that UMC had been caring for since the shooting, the doctors say that two remain in the hospital in good condition. Giffords, whose health had recently been upgraded from the 'critical' classification to serious is the only shooting vict! im in serious condition still in the hospital.

In a previous press briefing Lemole said that Giffords's progress in her recovery and survival was nothing short of miraculous. He said today that her progress continues to best be described that way.

"That word still holds well," Lemole said.