Bizarre: A reason to question Gabrielle Gifford's capacity to serve?

MILTON WOLF
VERBATIM POST
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This is bizarre, and frankly worrisome...

Aide: Giffords now knows who died in shooting

Her loved ones had been keeping the scope of the tragedy from her until she was strong enough to handle it.

“She knew for some time that six people had died and 13 were injured, including herself,” said Mark Kimble, who is Giffords’ new spokesman. “In late July, shortly before she went to Washington, she wanted to know more information, specifically about who had died. That’s when her husband told her.”

Anyone who has cared for victims of tragedies, as I have, will probably find this to be bizarre. Car crash victims, for example, are typically separated in the early phases of their emergency care, commonly even to separate hospitals, and they often are left unaware of the status of their fellow victims. This can create a great deal of anxiety as they desperately want to know if their family or friends (or even strangers in the other car) are alright.

Gabrielle Giffords, according to this report, knew for "some time" that 6 people had been killed and she knew the crowd was filled with people close to her, and yet for six months she didn't ask who they were? I say 'didn't ask' rather than 'wasn't told' because it's simply implausible that her handlers could have successfully withheld that critical information from her for so long against her wishes.

Frankly, and with no pleasure, this makes me worry for her mental status. Her injury resulted in severe damage to the speech centers of her brain, as I explained the neuroanatomy in an earlier post, but we were led to believe that her mentation had not been affected. That is certainly plausible and I pray that's true but that six-month delay before being "strong enough to handle it" is worrisome.

Possibilities could include, sadly, diminished mentation due to the brain injury, or -- understandably -- mental illness, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The former wouldn't likely improve and the latter is treatable, but if it incapacitated a sitting Congress person for six months, America deserved to know, rather than have it covered up. Recall the cover-up of now former Congressman David Wu's mental illness that ended tragically.

I hope this report is wrong. Or there's some other explanation. Anything. But for her sake and the sake of her constituents and the nation, it's important we know her capacity to serve.