Docs Clear Giffords To Attend Husband's Shuttle Launch
HOUSTON (CBS4) -- Rep. Gabrielle Giffords will attend husband Mark Kelly's space shuttle launch in Florida on Friday.
Doctors at TIRR Memorial Hermann in Houston say Giffords can travel to Cape Canaveral this week to watch her astronaut husband rocket into space as commander of the space shuttle Endeavour.
Dr. Gerard Francisco says she is "medically able" to attend the event but will return to Houston "shortly after the launch" to continue rehabilitation.
Francisco is the lead physician of the brain injury rehabilitation team and chief medical officer at TIRR.
It will be the Endeavour's final flight and the next-to-last shuttle mission.
Giffords was shot in the head in a mass shooting on Jan. 8 while at a meet-and-greet with constituents in Tucson, Ariz.
This would be her first trip since she was flown from Arizona to a Houston rehabilitation hospital where she has been in therapy.
Giffords has not been seen publicly since the shooting and has spent the last three months relearning how to speak, walk and take care of herself. She has been singing -- as part of musical therapy -- asking for her favorite foods and visiting with family, friends, and her rabbi.
Mark Kelly returned to training for the shuttle launch in February after taking time off to be at his wife's hospital bedside.
He said during an interview with CBS' Katie Couric that his wife will witness the launch of Endeavour, which is scheduled for 3:47 p.m. Friday.
"I've met with her doctors, her neurosurgeon and her doctors, and ... they've given us permission to take her down to the launch," Kelly said in the interview in Houston. The network statement did not specify when the interview occurred.
CBS released excerpts of the interview Sunday, and it was scheduled to air Monday evening.
President Barack Obama and the first family also are scheduled to watch the launch, although it's unclear if they will watch it with Giffords.
Families view launches at Kennedy Space Center from a restricted area, and there are no plans for Giffords to make a public appearance.
Giffords went to Kelly's last launch in 2008, when he commanded the space shuttle Discovery. The two married in 2007.
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