that is a mouthful. e p efface aphasia. one of the members of this group is gabby giffords. i m from tucson, arizona, born and raised. shot in my head, 2011. how about two fingers? all right. i m getting better. we met her in tucson to speak about her efforts to increase awareness about aphasia. what does aphasia mean to you personally? aphasia really sucks. the words are there in my brain, i just can t get them out. i love to talk. i m gabby. and i m so quiet now. giffords and her speech therapist have worked together for almost a decade.
hope. friends, family. a home. comradery? yes! she uses singing too, phrases with rhythm and melody are often retained when somebody has aphasia, even when spoken language is not. blowing like a breeze as for her continued recovery i m optimistic. it will be a long, hard haul, but i m optimistic. is your recovery a process of discovering a new gabby giffords or a fight to reclaim the old gabby giffords? the new one. better, stronger, tougher. remarkable conversation. i want to bring in dr. tara narula. who spoke with gabby giffords. remarkable what she has been through. that day stood out to so many and now to see where she is today. it is. and she s just resilience
personified. such compassion her advocacy around gun safety and aphasia has been incredible. i remember being this was january 8th, 2011. i remember i was anchoring that weekend and it was touch and go. people didn t know if she had survived. and then do you remember that moment when she came back to the floor and her husband of course. it just shows you how the body can recover. it s taken a long time but you can get through things like this now with the advances in medicine. you can. and you can help other people. look what she s done with her life in these last years so many other souls she s helped. this aphasia work is important. 2 million americans have aphasia, so many people don t know what that is, it s misunderstood, people may feel isolated, may lose their jobs, their relationships. so to have this support group.
we ve talked about aphasia a lot in the form of john fetterman and bruce willis. is this like fetterman? that s what we said this morning. yeah. thank you, doctor. appreciate it. tune in the all new cnn film gabby giffords won t back down appears only here on cnn. we have to tell you about this. western new york getting buried by a megablizzard. how much snow is expected. also, north korea launching one of the most powerful mic missiles yet. i d like to thank our sponsor liberty mutual. they customize your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. contestants ready? go! onlyly pay for what you need. jingle: : liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. a must in your medicine cabinet! less sick days! cold coming on? zicam is the number one cold shortening brand!