Pelosi says it was ‘like a miracle’ as Giffords opens eyes for first time

Three colleagues and close friends of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) were in the congresswoman’s hospital room Wednesday for the moment she opened her eyes for the first time since being shot.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) were there when Giffords opened her eyes, raised her arm and gave a thumbs-up — four days after being shot in the head Saturday.

{mosads}”It was a girl-power moment because we were striving — amusing and reminding of things that she was going to come back to when she came to the Congress,” Pelosi said Wednesday night, describing the moment. “And then she opened her eyes, and her husband — she looked at her husband and responded to comments that he made. And it was like a miracle. Really. It was something so spectacular.”

The trio visited Giffords in the hospital for the first time since the attempt on her life, ahead of a memorial service at the University of Arizona. Their colleague’s progress amazed doctors who have, so far, been cautiously optimistic about her prospects for recovery.

“One of the doctors literally just said, ‘Wow, this is incredible progress,'” Wasserman Schultz said,  describing the scene Thursday morning on CBS.

“She literally pulled her whole arm up, with a thumbs-up,” said Gillibrand, on ABC. “To be part of that moment, where she was trying so hard to communicate with us — it showed so much strength.”

Giffords’s opening of her eyes proved to be the emotional pinnacle of President Obama’s speech Wednesday night at the memorial service.

“Gabby opened her eyes, so I can tell you she knows we are here. She knows we love her,” the president said, to thunderous applause. “And she knows that we are rooting for her through what is undoubtedly going to be a difficult journey. We are there for her.”

The president heard the story of the moment from Mark Kelly, the astronaut husband of Giffords, who was in the room for the moment. Obama himself visited Giffords, as well.