Dr. Sanjay Gupta Reports: Saving Gabby Giffords
‘Dr. Sanjay Gupta Reports: Saving Gabby Giffords’ Gives Insights to Latest Progress
One-hour documentary debuts Sunday, May 8, 7:00pm ET
It has been four months since the shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ) and 18 others which resulted in the deaths of six people, including a federal judge and a Congressional staffer. One of the bullets that hit the Congresswoman passed completely through her brain and skull, yet she not only lived, she traveled to Florida and back to Houston to try to attend her astronaut husband’s space shuttle launch – now delayed due to weather.
Adding his expert medical insights to a dramatic reporting of how Giffords survived, CNN chief medical correspondent and practicing neurosurgeon Dr. Sanjay Gupta describes the frantic, life-saving efforts that saved the Congresswoman’s life in a new one-hour documentary. Dr. Sanjay Gupta Reports – Saving Gabby Giffords premieres Sunday, May 8 at 7:00p.m. ET.
Giffords’ recovery is described by her doctors and even the President of the United States in terms that sound no less than miraculous. Gupta reports that only about five percent of people with this type of gunshot injury survive – and he describes how the speed of the medical care delivered to her was essential to saving her life.
A quick-thinking intern adjusted the fallen Congresswoman’s body to facilitate her breathing. Gupta interviews the entire trauma team about their individual medical decisions that have proven to be life-saving. For the first time since Jan. 8, Gupta returns with the paramedic responders to the site of the mass shooting and learns new details of the scene – and discusses their critical decision not to wait for a transport helicopter.
Within 13 minutes, those EMTs evacuated her to a trauma hospital where surgeons – one calling upon his battlefield medical experience – another swiftly removed a portion of her skull to reduce intracranial pressure, and induced a coma to encourage healing. Dr. Gupta performs a surgical demonstration of this skull surgery for the documentary so that viewers can better understand how it works.
Later, Gupta reports that her entire original medical team would escort Giffords to her flight from Tucson to Memorial Hermann Medical Center in Houston. One of her doctors also traveled with her to Memorial Hermann to transition her care. In Houston, Gupta interviewed her doctors and therapists there for extensive new details on the singing therapy and physical training that the Congresswoman is undergoing during her rehabilitation.
“That her physicians and therapists each confirm that Congresswoman Giffords continues to improve daily is important,” reflects Dr. Gupta, “on-going progress means that she is still acquiring new skills that she is still healing. That supports the optimism of the team that is helping her achieve what is already a remarkable recovery.”
Original medical analysis of Giffords’ therapy and video excerpts from the documentary are available viewing via www.cnnhealth.com.
Danielle Dellorto is the senior producer for Saving Gabby Giffords. Roni Selig is the senior executive producer for the CNN Medical, Health, and Wellness unit.
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CONTACT:
Jennifer Dargan Atlanta jennifer.dargan@turner.com