Ms Giffords sustained a significant brain injury in the shooting. According to her Wikipedia page, the bullet penetrated the left side of her brain, entering at the front and exiting through the back. It was not reported to have penetrated her brain’s right hemisphere.
As the brain’s primary language centres are believed to be located in the left hemisphere, it was perhaps no surprise to hear that Ms Gifford’s language had been affected by her injury. The Guardian recently reported on her first television interview since her injury (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/15/gabrielle-giffords-return-congress-better?newsfeed=true), and discussed the impact of her injury on her speech and language skills.
While her comprehension, or ability to understand what is being said to her, is reported to be ‘near normal’, her expressive language appears to have been affected: "She spoke in a clear voice, but in halting phrases: "Pretty good … difficult … strong, strong, strong", she replied to questions about how she was feeling and how she had fared over the 10 months since the shooting. When asked if she felt angry about what had happened to her, Giffords replied: "No, no, no. Life, life".
If you think that a family member or friend may benefit from speech and language therapy after a stroke or brain injury, I.T.S could be of help. Contact us here: http://www.integratedtreatments.co.uk/contact-us/enquiry
Sarah Bennington, November 2011
Written on behalf of Integrated Treatment Services. I.T.S is a private Speech and Language Therapy service based in Leicestershire and the East Midlands. It specialises in providing highly-skilled Speech and Language Therapists, but also associates with other therapeutic professionals, including Occupational Therapists, Physiotherapists, Psychologists and Creative Expressive Therapists.
