Giffords standing, ready to move to rehab facility

By Jennifer Medina and Marc Lacey, New York Times

TUCSON — Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who survived a gunshot through her head on Jan. 8, is likely to leave a hospital here on Friday and move to the TIRR Memorial Hermann rehabilitation hospital in Houston to continue her recovery, a spokesman for Ms. Giffords said Wednesday.

In a sign of her significant progress, Katie Maass, a spokeswoman at University Medical Center, said Ms. Giffords, with the help of medical personnel, left her bed Wednesday and stood by the window of her room. She looked out the window, Ms. Maass said, although doctors have cautioned that they do not yet know the extent of her vision.

Ms. Giffords’s aides said the timing of the move to Houston might change depending on her health. Her doctors have said repeatedly that she was making remarkable progress, considering the severity of her injury, but that it was impossible to predict how she would recover.

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