Doctors said the Congresswoman is continuing to make progress eight days after the shooting in Tucson and is no longer in critical condition. She’s breathing on her own but still has a tracheotomy tube in her throat. Staff may be able to determine whether she is yet capable of speaking, which “would be a major leap in her recovery and prognosis.”
Gifford’s husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, left the hospital to speak at the memorial of aide Gabriel Zimmerman, 30, who was killed in the shooting. He said she was “improving a little bit each day. She’s a fighter.”
“I know someday she’ll get to tell you how she felt about Gabe herself,” Kelly said.
A church service also took place on Sunday for Dorwan Stoddard, 76, who knocked his wife Mary down and lay on top of her to protect her from the shooting.
“The journey will be very, very difficult, but he died for me, and I must live for him,” she said.
“I will survive. We will not let that gunman take that away.”
