Giffords’s husband vows ‘she’ll be back’

Mark Kelly, the husband of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, vowed that his wife would return to normal as she prepares to leave an Arizona hospital for a rehabilitation center in Houston. 

Giffords (D-Ariz.) is scheduled to be discharged from the University Medical Center (UMC) in Tucson, Ariz., to receive further treatment at TIRR Memorial Hermann Rehabilitation Hospital in Houston on Friday, a move that Kelly reassured would take place as planned. 

{mosads}”She’ll be back,” Kelly said at a press conference at UMC, adding that he expects her to be walking back into the ICU to thank her doctors “within a couple of months.”

Giffords has made steady progress since being seriously wounded by a bullet to the head during a shooting rampage at a Jan. 8 public event in Tucson. Eighteen others were shot in the attack, allegedly carried out by 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner, six of whom died. 

“We’re going to move her tomorrow,” Kelly said. “We are going through the planning process right now of how we are going to do that.” 

Dr. Michael Lemole, a neurosurgeon who treated Giffords at UMC, said that the congresswoman has been able to stand with assistance and play with an iPad. But he said she has a long way to go until she recovers fully from her injuries. 

“I want to caution everyone she has a long road ahead of her,” he said.

Kelly, an astronaut, said he considered a number of rehabilitation centers located in Arizona, Chicago, New Jersey and Washington, but chose Memorial Hermann for its expertise in treating brain injuries and its proximity to his home in Houston.

“I want my wife to get the best possible care,” he said. “What really is a critical factor in this decision is that it is going to let me be there by her side as much as possible.”

Kelly also praised Giffords’s treatment at UMC, calling it “nothing less than perfect care.”