significant progress. her personality is, you know, really almost fully back, you know? it s the gabrielle giffords that we know. she was more interactive and responsive. she hsas a long way to go but making remarkable progress. joined by dr. peter ree. doctor, good afternoon. good afternoon. what do you think of what you re hearing about the progress she s making in houston? oh, it s very encouraging and we re very happy about that. does it surprise you? no it doesn t, actually. this is about about the course that we had expected from the beginning. her doctors also noted something interesting. they said that while her overall memory is improving, she still doesn t remember a single thing about what happened on that saturday in tucson.
is it normal that one specific event like that would somehow evaporate from the memory and yet the rest of her memory s functioning? yes, it s very possible and it s very common, actually. a lot of the patients that i take care of never remember me or the setting of the icu. they will often only remember the rehabilitation phase of their illness. is that a neurological phenomenon or is it as it were an emotional reaction, to try to forget? i think it s a combination of things. but it s due to the injury to the brain itself. afterwards they re heavily medicaided so they can t remember. the long term memory, the events that happens before the event are still intact. doctors today called a fist pump moment when gabrielle giffords had her breathing tube removed but she still has a long way to go, doesn t she? what are some of the potential