Continued progress

Gabrielle Giffords' chief of staff updates her condition: "There's so much thatis unknown"

Dr. Dong Kim, center, and Pia Carusone, right, at a May 19 press conference onGiffords' condition
Photo by Sarah Rufca
Pia Carusone, chief of staff for U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords
Gabrielle Giffords

In an interview with the Arizona Republic, Gabrielle Giffords' chief of staff, Pia Carusone, gave new insights Thursday into the congresswoman's recovery.

Giffords, who has been recuperating at Houston's TIRR Memorial Hermann and traveled to see her husband's shuttle launch in Florida on May 16, has made amazing progress, according to all accounts, but she still has a long way to go. In the most extensive account of where Giffords stands at this point, Carusone said that the congresswoman has trouble forming complex sentences and becomes frustrated at not being able to find the right word or sentence to convey what she wants to say.

"We do a lot of inferring with her because her communication skills have been impacted the most," Carusone said. "Her words are back more and more now, but she's still using facial expressions as a way to express."

Giffords' Houston doctors have called her improvement from a Jan. 8 gunshot wound to the head "remarkable," with director of Memorial Hermann's Mischer Neuroscience Institute, Dr. Dong Kim, reporting that Giffords was able to walk with assistance, complete sentences and interact in extended conversation.

Although Giffords continues to improve, Caursone said, "She's alive. But if she were to plateau today, and this was as far as she gets, it would not be nearly the quality of life she had before. There's no comparison. All that we can hope for is that she won't plateau today and that she'll keep going and that when she does plateau, it will be at a place far away from here."

She notes that Giffords is only about halfway through the all-important 12 to 14 months after her injury, when most of the recovery milestones are typically reached. "In the doctors' minds, it's not even close to when you begin to make the final prognosis for the quality of her life."

Caursone also said that Giffords' decision about whether she will return to congress is a long way off. "The only firm timetable is the legal timetable, and that is May of 2012, when petitions are due for re-election."

Doctors have not been able to determine the damage to Giffords' brain done by the bullet because she cannot undergo an MRI, Caursone said. (Giffords has bullet shards in her head, and the MRI is magnetic.)

There's so much that is unknown. With cancer or a heart issue, doctors can tell you a lot more. With brain injuries, they can't. ... A lot of this is a waiting game. That is a difficult thing to explain when speaking to the public. But she was a perfectly healthy 40-year-old who was injured on the job. I'm hoping that buys her a little more patience. But it's a brutal world out there."

unspecified

Thanks, Queen Bey

Pop icon Beyoncé donates $100,000 to University of Houston Law School

Photo by Erza Shaw Getty Images

undefined

Pop megastar Beyoncé Knowles-Carter has donated $100,000 to the University of Houston Law Center Criminal Justice Clinic through her BeyGOOD Foundation. The gift will allow the clinic to hire fill-time faculty to head it, benefiting the students who study there.

“I am delighted that the BeyGOOD Foundation has made this very generous gift to the UH Law Center,” said Leonard Baynes, dean of the UH Law Center. “Not only will this funding help establish a full-time criminal justice clinic that provides pro bono legal services in our community, but it will also supercharge our already excellent criminal law and justice programming.”

The clinic is one of nine at UHLC. It helps students learn to navigate the criminal justice system, especially on behalf of clients that are underserved by skilled attorneys. People of color are affected disproportionately by a lack of good, ethical representation.

Beyoncé, the most decorated artist in Grammy history and easily the biggest musical star native to Houston, has a long history of advocating for criminal justice reform. She was a staunch supporter of the police reform following the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, asking law enforcement to “stop killing us” in a web post. In 2020, she penned an open letter to the Kentucky attorney general asking for justice in the death of Breonna Taylor.

Through her BeyGOOD Foundation, established in 2013, Beyoncé has focused mostly on expanding the prospects of Black-owned business and offering education opportunities to students. Forwarding the cause of legal representation in Texas while also helping out marginalized communities compliments her other philanthropic work.

“At UH Law, we envision a legal profession where ‘everyone has the opportunity to prosper,’ as BeyGOOD envisions, and we will achieve this vision by providing access to strong and effective legal representation in criminal proceedings,” Baynes said. “And together, through this gift, the BeyGOOD Foundation and UHLC will shepherd the next generation of criminal justice attorneys in the city of Houston, the state of Texas and the nation.”

Continued progress

Gabrielle Giffords' chief of staff updates her condition: "There's so much thatis unknown"

Thanks, Queen Bey

Pop icon Beyoncé donates $100,000 to University of Houston Law School

CultureMap Emails Are AwesomeGet Houston intel delivered daily.

We will not share or sell your email address.

CultureMap Emails Are Awesome
Get Houston intel delivered daily.