Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords has not been informed about the other victims that died in the Tucson shooting as her medical team fear it would impede her recovery.

Giffords, (40),  originally thought she has been when a car accident when she woke from her coma.

The Arizona Rep. was critically wounded on January 8 last, during a shooting spree in Tucson, which claimed the lives of six people.

She has not been told about the deaths of 9-year-old Christina Taylor Green, Gabriel Zimmerman, 30, and John Roll, 63.

Newsweek reported that her injured colleague Ron Barber disguised his injuries during a get-well-soon video which was sent by her Arizona staff.

Her husband, Irish American Mark Kelly who is an astronaut with NASA is due to launch with his space shuttle Endeavour on April 29. Her doctors and family are hopeful that she will be fit enough to attend the Florida lift off.

Her long road to recovery has been well documented with President Obama announcing the first big step of recuperationy: “Gabby opened her eyes for the first time”, he told the media on January 12.

Despite being shot in the head, Giffords was given a strong chance of survival and recovery from the outset, with the Tucson surgeon Dr Peter Rhee saying early on she had a “101 percent” survival chance.

Dr Gerard Francisco, the physiatrist who is heading her medical team, told Newsweek that he is pleased with her progress.

“Some people will expect changes to be big,” he said. “I’m happy with small changes, as long as I see these changes every day, and that’s why I’m very encouraged.

“Some people would like things to get better within an hour, within a day, within a week. Rehab is not measured that way. It is a long-term process.”

Kelly visits his wife every morning and reads to her when she has a break from her rehabilitation. A few weeks ago, she sensed he was censoring what he was reading her and she wanted to look at the newspaper. It was then he told her that she had been shot.

“So she knows why she’s there, and what her injury is, and some of the details about her situation,’ he told Newsweek.

“When I tell her what the level of interest is in how she’s doing and her recovery, she looks at me like I’m crazy.

“The doctors are very optimistic about where she’ll be three months, six months, from now. Incredibly optimistic. We don’t know what that new normal is going to be for her,” Kelly said.

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