Monday, January 17, 2011

Are We Getting Accurate Medical Information About Congresswoam Giffords?

I realize this is going to piss off some people, but are we getting accurate information about the medical condition of Congresswoman Giffords? The reason this is important is that every day, there many cases of brain trauma throughout the country due to car accidents, shootings or other head injuries and if the family of Giffords and the doctors are exaggerating how fast a brain injured person heals, it will lead to false hopes to those families.
From what we know, Gabby Giffords is in serious condition now. That means death probably is not immediate, like it could be when a patient is in critcal condition. It means nothing in the terms rehabilitation.
We know that Giffords is off a respirator but now has a tracheotomy. She also has a feeding tube in the stomach. A feeding tube means she is unable to eat or drink and she won't be able to do for eat sometime when she has a trach in.
Her husband claims Giffords gave her a 10 minute back rub. http://washingtonexaminer.com/news/nation/2011/01/rep-gabrielle-giffords-condition-improves
I find this highly unlikely. For her to give a backrub, you need advanced cognition and use of muscles that have been dormant for a week. The husband says she smiled at him, but the doctors are not so sure. She also underwent major surgery over the weekend. I'm sorry, but I just have a hard time believing she gave a 10 minute back rub. She doesn't have the cognition nor the endurance to do such a thing.
Giffords is going to have a long, long, long time in rehabilitation. She is going to have to learn how to eat, drink, bathe, shake hands and think all over again. It's going to be a long time and it will take extensive therapy for her to make life manageable. She will need extensive therapy from Occupational, Physical and perhaps respiratory therapy. She will also need help from educators and psychologists.
I hope Congresswoman Giffords succeeds in her therapy and can come back and do the things she used to do. However, the doctors and the family have to be honest in their assessment in what she can do and not do. They cannot exaggerate what she is doing because we have families all over the country and the world who are going through the same thing every day and they may be getting false hope for their relative and friend. Please don't give these families false hope.

1 comment:

  1. I hope this lady recovers as much as is humanly possible. What I heard initially is that she rubbed her husbands back. My impression was that she gave him a caring stroke. Later (at least my take on it was) the news media spun this into that she had given him a back rub, a massage. I knew it was baloney then. Now, today I see the photos of her leaving the hospital and there is no way that woman gave a back rub.

    I hate the frickin' news media.

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