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Wounded U.S. congresswoman moving all her limbs, becoming more aware of her surroundings TUCSON, Ariz. — U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords has passed a "major milestone" on her recovery from a gunshot wound to the head, doctors said Thursday. The Arizona congresswoman has been sitting up, dangling her legs on the edge of the hospital bed and moving her limbs in response to commands. That's after she spontaneously opened her eyes during visits with her colleagues Wednesday night. She is able to lift both of her legs on command and is yawning and starting to rub her eyes, doctors said."She's becoming more...

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is breathing on her own and is moving both arms, both very encouraging signs of recovery, physicians at University Medical Center in Tucson said Tuesday. In an interview, Dr. Peter Rhee, the chief of trauma at the medical center, said Giffords was moving both arms, although her left arm was more active than her right, and moving her eyes. Previously, doctors had said that she was moving only her left arm, which is controlled by the right hemisphere of her brain — the side that was not penetrated by the bullet. The fact that she was...

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is "100 percent" certain to survive, said Dr. Peter Rhee, a surgeon treating her for a gunshot wound to the head. "As a physician I'm going to get into a lot of trouble for this, but her prognosis for survival is 100 percent, as far as it being short term," Rhee told Britain's Channel 4 News (watch the video below). "Hopefully she'll live to be 95 years old," said Rhee, the medical director for University Medical Center's trauma center. "What her recovery is going to do I really don't know. I'm very optimistic however that she's not...

The bullet that passed through Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' brain tore through only one hemisphere before exiting, missing the crucial parts of the brain that control most bodily and cognitive functions. The bullet entered through the back of her head, passed through the left hemisphere of her brain and exited just above her left eye, Dr. Michael Lemole, chief of neurosurgery at University Medical Center in Tucson, said Sunday at a news conference. Giffords is being kept in a medically induced coma and is not able to speak because she is intubated, but when she is periodically awakened, she is able...