Gabrielle Giffords to Visit North Carolina for Therapy

• By Melanie Starkey
• Roll Call Staff
• Oct. 23, 2011, 5:15 p.m.

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords left Texas today to undergo intensive therapy in North Carolina through Nov. 4.

The Arizona Democrat’s two-week stay in Asheville had been planned for months, according to a statement from her office. Giffords will receive treatment from a therapist who has worked with her for several months in Houston as she recuperates from a brain injury.

Giffords was shot in the head Jan. 8 at a constituent event in Tucson, Ariz. The attack killed six people and wounded her and 12 others.

No public appearances or interviews have been scheduled during Giffords’ time in Asheville, her office said. She has been in Washington, D.C., twice since the attack: once to vote in favor of raising the debt ceiling in August, then again this month to attend a retirement ceremony for her husband, NASA astronaut Mark Kelly.

The statement did not identify the therapist or specify the type of therapy. It said that the trip is “strictly rehabilitation-related.”

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