that is a reset from last month's planned liftoff which was delayed by technical glitches. also as you know, gabrielle giffords is one of the thousands expected to attend monday's launch. well, i will be back with you at the top of the hour with more live news on cnn saturday morning. but right now, we can hand it over to the good doctor. what a beautiful day it was. a beautiful morning that turned so tragic. >> 911. what is your emergency? >> there was a shooting. >> we have breaking news for you. several people have been shot. among those shooting victims was congresswoman gabrielle g

giffords. >> he came up and asked if he could talk to her and then he was barging through. >> 15 to 20 gun shots. some people running and screaming. it was gabriel giffords. >> 11 others also shot today, six people are dead. the victims were stuck behind the table set up for this event. >> investigators have the suspected shooter in custody. >> and there are other people that are injured. there are multiple people shot. >> okay. >> oh, my god. >> what police say is that shady looking gentleman was gerald loughner and the table that they're talking about is right over here. this is where he bothered through. congresswoman and the judge were standing right around there and this is where he shot them. but then he proceeded down the line shooting people at random. by the time the paramedics got here, jared loughner had been taken down but there railroad literally bodies strewn all across the ground here.

colt jackson, aaron rodgers, and wes magnota were among the first medical responders on the scene. >> we were actually at a gas station and we heard the call go out. and we heard the trucks rolling by. we weren't sure of the full effect of what was going on. >> so you're looking out at this. we have some idea of what it must have looked like. but was it chaos? were the people running around? >> you know, there wasn't a lot of people running. there were a lot of bodies. a lot of people doing work. the first thing i noticed was a banner for gabriel giffords. in my mind i started recognizing this was a political event. there was not a lot of shouting. there wasn't a lot of pandemonium. and when we walk up, i remember smelling blood. >> you had bags with you and starting to cross over the tape now. and we're pulling our gurney in. we have our back board and supplies. and we see there are people working over here.

and there's crews over here. and there's bodies laying around. and then all through here there are bodies. and there's quite a bit of blood on the ground. and about the time we get here, we see colt sitting in the back against the glass. and there is a patient laying here that has a sheet over him. this person was deceased. we had to step over this person to get to the back in here with colt. i knelt down with colt and he looked up at me and he said this is gabby, gabby giffords. >> this is the first time i've been back since the shooting. it's different. definitely different. >> this is my fifrt tirst time well. glad to talk with colt again and revisit it. i walked up and can you immediately see the scene in your mind. but -- >> flash back? >> sure. sure. not a traumatic flash back. but you remember. for me, the smell is the big thing. >> the smell of blood. >> sure. >> and what did you see? what are you looking for when you start to evaluate a patient? >> i asked her if she do hear

me. she squeezed her hand. she was alert to that sense. >> she had been down 30 minutes. the medics faced a critical decision. >> we were instructed by person on scene to put her in a helicopter. we looked at each other. we didn't hear a helicopter or see a helicopter. >> the rookie paramedics ultimately made that split second decision to just go. so what happened? so her head over here? >> that's right. colt was initiating an iv in her left arm. and we were continuing checking on her responsive level. we decided to start another iv. so that's when i came over to this area. just a frequent thing for us to do. and i stood here and during the entire transport i was working on this part of her body trying to get an iv established in her other arm. we had her on oxygen, constantly

mondaying toing every minute or so. having her respond to us by squeezing our hands. >> i had her put her hand on my leg and squeeze my leg so she was still with us. >> our gentleman was going good and we were foes used on streeting gabby. >> are you measuring blood pressure? >> blood pressure, pulse, making sure she has pulse. make sure she's got it all the way around. >> she was shot in the head. and to have any level of responsiveness at all i thought was amazing. and how quickly she responded to it. it wasn't here, squeeze my hand and then slowly did it. squeeze my hand and she would squeeze it right away. >> so it wasn't a reflex. >> yeah. it wasn't just something at random. it was always on command, always immediately. >> the entire time that she was going to the hospital, was she awake and alert? >> her eyes were closed, as far as alert, responsive to pain. more responsive than verbal.

she wouldn't flinch if we poked her. and she would squeeze our hands if we asked her to. she opened her eyes. she had swelling. we couldn't assess the level of responsiveness. but for the most part we could see her kind of wincing in pain and moving. i don't know if anybody had told her she was shot. so i don't know if she knew the circumstances that she was involved in. not many people know this, between the two of us, there were less than two years of experience. >> did you feel completely prepared to do what you needed to do that day? >> i think so. >> 44 minutes after giffords was shot and 13 minutes after leaving the safeway parking lot, the medics arrived at the largest trauma center in tucson. up next, we're going inside the operating room with gabby's neurosurgeon. could he reverse the damage? >> it's very hard to tell what brain is going to come back

online and what brain is damaged. it all looks pretty bad. >> the brain has no place to swell. >> and i'll take you inside my operating room to show you the surgery that gabby had, removing half of her skull. >> that bone right out of there. >> it brings your best minds and their brightest ideas together. it helps the largest of companies seize opportunity like the smallest of startups. it's the network-- the intelligent, secure cisco network that lets your employees, partners, suppliers and customers innovate and share so you can unleash the power of your most valuable asset: your people. [ male announcer ] nature is unique...

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[ siren sounds ] congressman gab rye he will giffords is headed to the operating room. >> we brought the congresswoman out and go straight down this hallway here. >> she survived the initial gunshot wound to the head but was still in critical condition. the bullet was fired from a glock 19 .9 millimeter handgun. it traveled the entire length of her brain and exited the back. it was a focused wubd, meaning the damage was concentrated to one area of the brain. neurosurgeon was called in to continue the race to save gabby.

what did they first tell you? when you first heard you're operating on someone that was shot in the head, how did they describe that to you? >> i didn't register. i was at a golf lesson for my oldest boy. we were in the pro shop afterwards. i got the call. i'm answering that call and also looking up at the tv. >> breaking news for you coming out of tucson, arizona. several people have been shot. >> and right when he said the name, i saw the face. and i knew there was something terribly wrong. i immediately -- >> so you were talking and saw the face on tv. >> the weirdest thing. it is like a dissociation and click. it all came together. >> within 40 minutes of arriving at the hospital, gabby giffords was in the operating room. and the doctor was ready to operate. so she's obviously asleep now, breathing tube and all the necessary ivs. do you have a plan in your mind as you're walking in the operating room? you have an idea of what you want to accomplish? >> sure. the things that get you in trouble in this case is bleeding

uncontrolably. so if that bullet cut a major artery, that's hard to clean up that kind of -- with that kind of trouble. and fortunately here that was not the case. and then of course the brain swelling we worry about. and, again, something we can't really control but we can try and at least lessen the impact of and that's where we take off the bone fragment that's are there and maybe even a little bit more. that's where judgment comes in. >> it's a judgment call that trauma neurosurgeons are forced to make. a through and through bullet injury causes direct damage to the brain much it's the secondary damage due to swelling where you try to minimize the risk. the simple things they can do in the operating room, simply lifting the head of the bed up can reduce the swelling in the head. insert certain medications to shrink the brain. that can help as well. also, as they did in congressman giffords case, they can remove part of the bone here to decrease that swelling. so one thing to keep many mind, the brain, unlike other organs

of the brain, if it starts to swell, it really has nowhere to go. it can only go down wards and that is a hernation. you make holes like that one and giving access to the brain here and one over here which is just behind the eye. this is a pretty classic place where you make a hole and try to remove a large chunk of bone. that's the first part. and the second part is simply to try and connect the holes. you want to get as much bone off here as possible so that the brain has the maximum area to sort of swell. it is getting nice and hot. the key is to protect the brain underneath as well. and this is the last cut now we're making.

one of the things that's really important is when you take this bone out, you want to make sure that you're protecting the brain underneath. lift that bone right out of there. and had is the area where the brain is actually allowed to swell. the brain is coming out of here. and this is key to reducing that swelling. and the last bit was just finding those areas of the brain that are clearly no longer alive. usually where the bullet came in and out and just clean that up. try to lower the chance of infection. the key thing is you don't chase it into the brainment we don't try to get every little piece of bullet out. even if they might be a source for infection in the future because this might damage good brain. >> cause more harm than good. >> absolutely. >> i'm very, very pleased to hear the doctors report that she is still alive and fighting for

her life. >> gabby never stopped fighting. and the progress she made just days after her surgery gave her doctors hope. >> i'm cautious. but i will tell you this. given her recent improvements, i'm as hopeful as i've ever been for any patient. >> that's a strong statement. >> yes. >> nearly 95% of people shot in the head don't survive. but gabby giffords, she beat the odds. >> she'll smile at me. she'll do a couple things she'll only do around me like pat me on the face. she used to do that before. now just very gently. i can just look if her eyes and tell. >> the biggest challenge is really fighting through the frustration of a slow recovery at her own pace. i've been trying to brace everyone for that. because as you know, it's not up to us. it's outside of our hands now. my little moment in the sun was for the two hours in the operating room. that's where i had maximum impact. >> gabby's injured brain would

need to heal. it would need to rewire. rehab. they talk about that being so important at this point. tell me about what -- is she getting rehab now? >> she's getting the rehab and it is measured rehab. sitting at the side of the bed, dangling the legs. even that simple motion is to start the rehab process. but rehab itself, what we call the rehab hospital, that's an intensive experience. >> her husband mark kelly knew the road to recovery would be long. but to make gabby whole again, they would leave tucson. saving gabby giffords continues inside her aggressive rehab much that's next. ♪ ♪ ♪

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gabby's recovery would continue a long way from the

tucson mountains. if it were the paramedics, nurses and doctors in tucson who were responsible for saving the congresswoman's life, it would be the doctors and staff at the memorial hospital in houston that would be asked to gabby gifford's life, it would be the rehab center in houston that will put gabby back together again. for an hour just about every day, congresswoman giffords does this. >> so you're going to sing it and if i mouth it, maybe we can do that and you can tell me what that means. ♪ twinkle twinkle little star >> it's called music therapy. and people don't know how it actually works. i will show you as if i like

congresswoman giffords were a patient of the doctor and his team. it sounds like a long day. >> it is a long day. >> everybody here has suffered a catastrophic injury and gets taylored therapy. the site of the injury in the brain is crucial. >> there is a tendency for a patient to forget one side of the body. >> just neglect it? >> just neglect it and if they're not using the weak side, you forget it. >> these cords are actually attached to my muscles in my legs. it's actually predicting which muscle it should be using and it's giving stimulation to that muscle. the brain usually sends a signal to the muscle, but the machine sends it's own signal and that helps rewire the brain.

this one over here, they call it the superman device. learning to walk without the burden of my own body weight. >> 30% of your body weight has been taken out. >> this is for somebody who's been bedridden for a long time, taking their first steps. and this is for someone who has weakness and really needs to start walking for the first time. >> okay, you said len, it's pen, use your lips. >> and remember, with gabby, speech is also a concern. how significant is that in the speech therapy world that she starts asking for things on her own? >> that's huge. that's one of your first goals is for somebody to express their basic wants and needs. >> as congresswoman giffords husband prepares for his final mission for space, her mission was to gain enough strength to travel toa launch. >> gabby's intensive, often

grueling eight hours of intensive therapy a day built her up for this day. look at the congresswoman who just months ago was shot in the head, slowly takes those steps. >> i credit mark for his extreme optimism and his resolve. i wish every single patient had someone like that at their side. it's just positive energy, positive thoughts. i think people have nonverbal ways of communicating and i think he really was able to encourage her in very, very -- i would say many different levels. >> do you spend much time reflecting on what happened in january? >> briefly, fragments. not a lot. >> believe it or not, life actually has returned to some degree of normalcy here in tucson. >> but the tight knit community in tucson will never forget the six lives that were cut short

that morning at the safeway. among the six killed in the attack, federal judge john roll. the 63-year-old u.s. district court chief judge had served the legal system for nearly 40 years, he was a father of three and had five grandchildren. also killed, one of the staffers of injured congresswoman giffords, gabe zimmerman was 30 years old. 76-year-old darwin stoddard used his body to shield his wife who was wounded in the shooting. darwin did not survive. dorothy morris and phyllis scneek died that day. also christina who loved poli c politics which is why she was there that day. 14 others were injured in the

shooting, including congresswoman giffords. >> all too often we forget and just as this case sort of proved, once it's out of sight out of mind, people ask well why isn't he already back in congress, and i think it's important that we temper those efforts. it's not that she's not going to be improve, not going to continue making progress. >> she's going to have changing thoughts and memories and feelings and emotions, so we'll have to see how that pans out in the future. >> she will be able to congresswoman again? address her constituents, all of that? >> i think a lot of that depends on her and her resolve and from what i gather from her family and her husband and her husband, i bet she's certainly very resolute. >> there was a lot of excitement that she was doing so well early on, but i kept on trying to

drive home that this was a month long, year long recovery party. this is not like recovering from even a heart operation where you're up and around in a couple of weeks. i want to temper that expectation. >> but giffords has defied the odds from the very beginning, giving signs to the medics, the doctors, the nurses and the therapist therapists, she has never stopped fighting. gabby can use her wheelchair, she can stand up on her own, she's even learning to take small steps. she often tells her husband i love you and tells her doctors, i miss tucson. based on your ability to prognosticate and predict the future, what do you think? >> she is going to do very well.

she's going to have scars on her head. so while we cover it up, there is a lot of things that are permanently damaged that won't ever come back. but what she'll do is, she'll adapt. and the human brain has such a capability of adapting that you'll be amazed at what they can do. ♪ hello sunshine, sweet as you can be ♪ [ female announcer ] wake up to sweetness with honey nut cheerios cereal. kissed with real honey. and the 100% natural whole grain oats can help lower your cholesterol. you are so sweet to me. bee happy. bee healthy. a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms. but if you have arthritis, staying active can be difficult.

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