How was Rep Giffords shot?
 

Is it just me, or is there scant details on how the Congresswoman was shot? Was he in front of her, beside her or behind her? Seems it is important information for the public to understand how bad the wound is, and how lax her security/staff were.

I saw an interview with a surviving aide who said he saw the pos approach and told there was a line. He was wearing baggy pants and a jacket and he just walked away. A bit later he saw the same pos walk around behind the group and approach the congresswoman and then raise his hand. The aide saw a gun and he yelled at the same time as the pos fired into the back of her head.

I hear on the day of the shooting she was shot in the temple and the bullet exited her forehead - a potentially short path compared to what it could have been but I have never actually confirmed that. They have said the trajectory did not cross the center line of the brain but that's all.

I read on CBS that it was confirmed that the bullet went from back to front, the whole distance of her left hemishpere... found this from another article that's an interesting read:

A back-to-front bullet track, as Giffords's appears to be, would have more devastating consequences the closer it is to the neck. A path near the top of the head would cause both less and different damage. Giffords's wound appears to be more like the latter than the former.

The evidence for that is her ability to respond to the spoken request to display a certain number of fingers. Many parts of the brain are involved in that task, but language comprehension resides mostly in what's known as Wernicke's area, which is part of the temporal lobe near the temple and ear.

The bullet appears to have passed above that area. It may have entered high enough to also miss the visual cortex, which ends about halfway up the back of the head. Asked whether Giffords's vision was impaired, her neurosurgeon at University Medical Center in Tucson, Michael Lemole, said it hadn't been tested but "the hope is that it won't be affected."



A trajectory going back to front at that level on the left side of the head would pass through through the parietal and frontal lobes, large regions involved in complicated mental actions.

The bullet would hit the left visual association area at the back of the head first. That region is responsible for determining the meaning of what one sees. Damage can result in so-called neglect syndromes in which a person is unaware of objects on one side. The person may fail to eat food on the right side of a plate, and in severe cases may not even recognize a right arm or leg as his or her own.

That region is also involved in comprehension of symbols, such as the numbers and hands on a clock. A person also may not be able to put in correct order a series of pictures, such as ones showing a full plate of cookies, a boy next to a half-empty plate and an empty plate.

Farther forward, the bullet would hit the somatic sensory cortex, which is responsible for comprehending touch. A person with damage there may not be able to identify that a quarter placed in the hand is a coin.

Forward of that is the motor cortex, which contains brain cells that control specific muscles. Which parts of the body - toes, leg, arm, finger, face - may be permanently weakened or paralyzed depends on exactly where the bullet passes. The left side of the brain controls the right side of the body, so any disability would be on the right.

Forward of that are areas responsible for planning complex movements, such as walking, and for controlling eye movements. Closest to the forehead is a section of the brain responsible for mood, self-control and creative thought.

Giffords is on a ventillator and sedated most of the time to minimize stress to her brain. The extent of her disabilities isn't known. But the fact she can follow directions is extremely encouraging, several experts said.

Prayers for a major recovery. Not sure how likely that will be though.

+1000
For all of them.

I read yesterday that it was definitely a front to rear shot.

This is only part of the statement made by doctors.

Giffords: Doctors Optimistic, But Extent Of Damage Unknown To Them, Any Recovery Path To Be Long And Winding Road
January 9th, 2011 (1) Posted By Pat Dollard.


TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) – Recovering from a gunshot wound to the head depends on the bullet’s path, and while doctors are optimistic about Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ odds, it can take weeks to months to tell the damage.
Doctors say the bullet traveled the length of the left side of the Arizona congresswoman’s brain, entering the back of the skull and exiting the front.

Fortunately, it stayed on one side of her brain, not hitting the so-called “eloquent areas” in the brain’s center where such wounds almost always prove fatal.
Importantly, Giffords was responding nonverbally Sunday to simple commands in the emergency room — things like “squeeze my hand.”

That implies “a very high level of functioning in the brain,” said Dr. Michael Lemole of Tucson’s University Medical Center, Giffords’ neurosurgeon.

Now, her biggest threat is brain swelling. Surgeons removed half of her skull to give the tissues room to expand without additional bruising, Lemole said.

That bone is being preserved and can be reimplanted once the swelling abates, a technique the military uses with war injuries, added his colleague and trauma surgeon Dr. Peter Rhee.

I read front to back as well after it was thought to be back to front.