Gabrielle Dee Giffords is an American retired politician and gun control advocate who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives representing Arizona’s 8th congressional district from January 2007 until January 2012, when she resigned due to a severe brain injury suffered during an assassination attempt.
A member of the Democratic Party, she was the third woman in Arizona’s history to be elected to the U.S. Congress. Though a moderate on the issue during her time in Congress, Giffords has since become an ardent advocate for gun control.
In January 2013, she and her husband launched Americans for Responsible Solutions, a non-profit organization and Super-PAC which later joined with the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence to become Giffords.
On October 13, 2022, she was named the Grand Marshal of the 2023 Rose Parade and will preside over the Rose Parade and the Rose Bowl game.
Who was Gabby Giffords neurosurgeon?
Dr Michael Lemole. On the fifth anniversary of the shooting of former Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, the neurosurgeon who operated on her, Dr Michael Lemole, tells Here & Now’s Jeremy Hobson about her surgery and rehabilitation.
Dr Lemole says he tells many of his brain trauma patients that while they can recover from injury, their lives will be different.
Giffords’ neurosurgeon, Dr G. Michael Lemole Jr., told ABC News’ Diane Sawyer today that as he raced to the hospital to perform the congresswoman’s surgery, he was hearing conflicting reports on the radio about whether the congresswoman had already died or was clinging to life. When he called in to confirm, he was told that her vital signs were good.
“I think she is a miracle just the way she presented to us,” he said using the medical jargon for her condition when she arrived at the hospital.
“That whole last little bit of the conversation saying how unique it was that she presented that she was able to follow commands with this kind of severe injury.
That in and of itself is a miracle,” Lemole said. “We can’t control that. And when we’re dealt that hand, we are very thankful.”