Giffords arrives in Houston for rehab

HOUSTON, Jan. 21 (UPI) -- U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., arrived at a Houston hospital Friday to begin rehabilitation less than two weeks after she was shot in Tucson.

Following the 930-mile trip from Tucson, Giffords was placed in intensive care at Texas Medical Center, where she faces several days of medical evaluation before being sent to the center's TIRR Memorial Hermann rehabilitation hospital, the Houston Chronicle reported.

Dr. Gerardo Francisco, chief medical officer of Memorial Hermann, said Giffords has "great rehabilitation potential," the Chronicle reported.

The Veterans of Foreign Wars provided a motorcycle escort for the ambulance carrying Giffords to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona, The Washington Post reported. Hundreds of people, many of them waving U.S. flags, lined the route.

"It was very emotional and very special," Dr. Randall Friese, who traveled with Giffords, told the Chronicle.

In another effort to move on in Tucson, a group of clergy held a cleansing service outside the Safeway where six people were killed and Giffords and 12 others were wounded, the Arizona Daily Star said. Roman Catholic Bishop Gerald Kicanas and Bishop Minerva Carcano of the United Methodist Church were among those participating and speaking of the courage shown by many Jan. 8.

"God was here on that terrible and tragic day and God is here on this day," Carcano said.

A college dropout, Jared Lee Loughner, 22, has been charged with the shooting. Investigators said Giffords was his main target.

Giffords can expect to spend weeks or months at TIRR Memorial Hermann hospital, the Post said. Her husband, Mark Kelly, an astronaut who lives and trains in Houston, said the family selected TIRR for its quality and its location.

Giffords will have a bed in the most private wing of the Houston hospital and will be given added security, but she will receive no other special treatment, Francisco said.

"We don't plan to treat her any differently than we treat someone with a similar injury. It's business as usual," Francisco said. "It's the rehabilitation program that we would provide anyone with this type of impairment."

Kelly said having the congresswoman in Houston will let him resume his duties at NASA and still "be there, by her side, as much as possible, every single day."

"I don't know how long this process will take," he said.

But he said he was "extremely hopeful that Gabby is going to make a full recovery."

"I've told her that. She recognizes it," he said.