The Hill News

Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords has been having phone conversations with her staff, the latest sign she may soon recover from the gunshot wound she suffered in January.

Giffords has spoken several times by phone to her intern, Daniel Hernandez, who was credited with saving the congresswoman's life after a gunman shot her in the head at close range during a district meet-and-greet in Tucson, Ariz on Jan. 8.

Hernandez told the Arizona Republic the phone calls have included "short interactions and long interactions."

He noted the last call came on Wednesday, when he talked to Giffords and her mother, Gloria Giffords, while at work in the Democrat's Tucson office.

"Gloria passed the phone ove! r to Gabby," Hernandez said. "It's great hearing her voice." He declined to get into specifics of the conversation "out of respect for her privacy."

He added, "pretty soon you will be able to ask her yourself because she's just doing extremely well and recovering very quickly."

Giffords remains in rehabilitation at the Memorial Hermann Texas Medical Center in Houston.

Her congressional spokesman, C.J. Karamargin, declined to comment on Hernandez's conversations with Giffords.