Salon: At congresswoman's bedside, good news keeps coming (she may be "out of the woods" on Friday)

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Thursday, Jan 13, 2011 13:08 ET
At congresswoman's bedside, good news keeps coming
Doctors release more good news about Rep. Giffords as she emerges from a coma



If all goes well, she may be "out of the woods" on Friday, said Dr. Peter Rhee, Trauma and Critical Care Emergency Surgery doctor at University Medical Center.

Even Gabrielle Giffords' doctors are starting to call her recovery a miracle.

Few people who take a bullet to the brain -- just 10 percent -- survive such a devastating wound.

Yet doctors say the critically injured congresswoman has been making steady progress each day since the assassination attempt on Saturday. Six people were shot and killed.

Giffords is moving both legs and both arms, has opened both eyes and is responding to friends and family, doctors said Thursday. They've helped her sit up and dangle her legs from the bed, and she is able to lift her legs.

[RKP5637]

1. Great News!!! n/t

[cutlassmama]

2. What great news!

[Control-Z]

3. Wow!

That is amazing and great news. I've been so worried about paralysis. Moving both legs and both arms? Wow. And sitting up already. She'll be walking around before we know it. Does anyone know if they've finally taken the tube out of her throat? She will feel so much better once that's gone.

This is such good news.

[Altoid_Cyclist]

4. I don't know if it was just to test her, but they have reported that she is able to breathe

on her own.

This is truly wonderful news.