Photos of a smiling but visibly altered Gabrielle Giffords have been posted on her Facebook page, the first images of the US congresswoman to be released since she was shot in the head at close range in January.
With flecks of gray visible in her now closely-cropped dark hair and wearing wire-rimmed glasses, Giffords smiles broadly in one of the two pictures, dated May 17.
A second photograph shows her, still beaming, seated next to her mother Gloria Giffords.
Both pictures, released by Giffords’s congressional campaign, were taken the day before the Arizona representative underwent surgery to replace part of her skull. No pictures of her post-surgery have been released.
Her official congressional portrait taken before the shooting shows a smiling Giffords with chin-length blonde-streaked hair standing before the pillars of the US Congress building.
The photos were intended to show the world how far Giffords has come since a gunman shot her through the brain from point-blank range on January 8 outside a supermarket near Tucson, Arizona, where she was meeting constituents.
“These photos reveal an upbeat image of Gabrielle Giffords,” her spokesperson CJ Karamargin told People Magazine.
“When you see the pictures you see that she has progressed in leaps and bounds. When they say that a picture is worth a thousand words, if ever that was true, it is true here.”
The interview did not reveal the state of Giffords’s cognitive functioning nor did it give any indication as to if or when the three-time elected US lawmaker might be able to return to her job on Capitol Hill.
Shooter mentally unfit for trial
Six people, including a federal judge and a nine-year-old girl, were killed and 12 others wounded in the shooting spree, which shocked the United States and made headlines around the world.
In March, the alleged shooter, Jared Loughner, was declared mentally unfit to stand trial. Experts found the 22-year-old to be schizophrenic and unable to help in his own defence or understand court proceedings.
US media reports on Sunday said Giffords would soon leave the Houston hospital where she has been receiving rehabilitation treatment. The reports said she would continue to receive outpatient therapy at home.
Doctors have been helping Giffords regain movement on the right side of her body after a bullet tore through the left side of her brain in the shooting rampage.
Last month, Giffords travelled to Cape Canaveral, Florida, to see off her husband, space shuttle commander Mark Kelly, as he piloted Endeavour to the International Space Station on its last mission.
Karamargin said Giffords’s photos reflected her joy at watching the lift-off captained by her astronaut husband.
“She was in very, very good spirits. The reason was that she got to watch Mark ride off into space. She was thrilled by that,” the spokesperson told People.
“People who know her say they saw a boost in her spirits and her strength. And her doctors predicted this might happen,” Karamargin said. “Going to the launch was a tremendous milestone for her.” – AFP