tornado that uprooted some trees and tossed a few mobile homes around. no one was hurt. floodwaters invade the lake home of mississippi governor, haley barber. sandbagging was not enough to protect the home from the swollen woofl lake in nearby yazoo river. doctors plan a news briefing to discuss the next step in treating congresswoman gabrielle giffords. she is recovering well, they say, following yesterday s operation on her skull. surgeons implanted a piece of synthetic bone made specifically for the congresswoman. giffords husband, mark kelly, talked about the surgery from space. i had the chance at the end of the day to call her mom and her chief of staff and my brother periodically through as the surgery was going on. she is doing really well. everything went as planned. her neurosurgeons are very happy. she is recuperating and getting back to therapy today. it went really, really well.
jeannie, happy doomsday to you. reporter: jeanne moos, cnn, new york. that s it for us. it is 9:00 a.m. on the east coast, 6:00 a.m. out west. good morning to you. i m carol costello in for kyra phillips. the schwarzenegger scandal keeps getting more shocking. his child with his wife, maria and his secret child with his housekeeper were born just days apart. president obama getting ready to deliver a major speech on how the united states will deal with the new middle east. sanctions for some nations and help for others and a controversial suggestion for israel. this just in to us. the number of people filing for first-time unemployment claims is down again. the second straight week of sharp drops. four years into the job and four days after his arrest on sex crime charges, the head of the international monetary fund hands in his resignation. dominique strauss-kahn made the decision from his new york jail cell. he has been in custody since the weekend, accused of s
elizabeth cohen had a chance to speak with the doctor who will perform this surgery and she joins us from atlanta. explain what s going to be happening, as early as today? right. as you said, i sat down with dr. don kim and dr. kim is gabrielle giffords neurosurgery, the chair of neurosurgery at the university of texas. take a look at that skull he s explaining to me in wounds like giffords, what you do is you remove that piece of skull because the brain needs a place to swell right after the injury. but now, when the swelling goes down, they can actually put the bone back or often what they do is put a piece of synthetic bone back. that s that blue piece right there. it snaps right in there. you see they screw it in with screws in place. this really is the beginning of the end. in other words, once that is on there, she is able they re able to think about sending her to be an outpatient. so she can leave the hospital and start her recovery at home. kiran, christine. and then th
traveled in an airplane to watch her husband mark kelly take off in the shuttle endeavour. and now more than four months after the shooting, another milestone. an effort go make gabby whole again. after the shooting they cut a hole in her skull like this one to give her brain a place to swell. now the swelling is gone. i sat down with giffords neurosurgeon who will be performing the surgery at the university of texas. is this a big step in someone s recovery? yes, it is a big step. reporter: dr. kim will implant a piece of synthetic bone made especially for giffords it. fits in and it feets in perfect as you can see. then we take these little plates and screws. we want to put in generally one here, there, and there. so this is holding the implant and the real skull together. that s right. it really is a significant step.
will be performing the process. is this a big step? yes, it is a big step. reporter: dr. kim will implant a piece of synthetic bone made especially for giffords. it will fit in perfect as you can see. then we take these little plates and screws, we went to put in generally one here, there and there. so this is holding the implant and the real skull together? that s right. it really is a significant step. and more than just getting the bone back, it s a marker for where we are. reporter: dr. kim told me patients like giffords often need another procedure, this one, to get rid of a build jum of fluid in the drain. he inserts a tube to drain excess fluid from the brain to the abdominal cavity. people wear this called a shunt forever. so people walk around with this tube for life? yeah, it can last the rest of their life. at some point, patients can