Truth Be Told | Covering Giffords through rose-colored lenses

If you’ve ever gotten choked up at characters on screen or on stage that you’ve never met or know aren’t real, if you’ve ever clapped or cheered at a happy ending — then this show might be for you.

Spoiler alert: the show stars Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), and I’ve heard it’s good.

The tragic events in Tucson, Ariz., have etched a place in the American consciousness for Giffords. The news networks have used her status as a political figure — as well as her near-miraculous survival and subsequent recovery — to craft a pilot for a show that has been doing pretty darned well in the ratings.

In a recent article, The Daily Pennsylvanian quoted Michael Lemole, one of Giffords’ primary doctors and a 1995 Penn Medicine graduate, as saying that people are “grateful,” “optimistic” and “hopeful” about the whole ordeal — which has certainly been the case.

News reports of Giffords’ recovery that were filled with expressions of optimism. For instance, ABC News ran a headline that read, “‘She smiles, she knows’ that she’s lucky.”

In a news conference, Giffords’ husband said, “I’m extremely hopeful that Gabby is going to make a full recovery.” Even to us, she was then no longer Rep. Giffords; we knew her personally and were on a first name basis. Call her Gabby.

The media coverage of the Giffords chronicle plays to our society’s love of a good tragedy-turned-triumph narrative. I agree with her husband that it would be a perfect ending to see Giffords back in her seat in the House having overcome near hopeless odds.

But having too much of a glass-half-full attitude about something as grave and uncertain as traumatic brain injury might be a bad thing.

“There’s the injury you see and the injury you don’t see,” said James Schuster, an assistant Neurosurgery professor at Penn. “It’s different going from being awake and responding to family … to being able to function at a high intellectual level.”

The brain — our most mysterious organ — has an unpredictable way of healing itself. As much as the news outlets might try to put rose-colored lenses on their video cameras, recovering cognitive function is a very tenuous process. Even though the doctors involved with her care assured the people at home tuned into The Giffords Show that she’s recovering “at lightning speed,” they were (rightfully) hesitant to make any definitive prognoses about how this will turn out in the end.

Schuster voiced a concern that was on many people’s minds, especially after seeing her empty seat during the State of the Union address. “The question is,” he said, “can she go back to being a Congresswoman?”

Medical professionals are often called on to be much more than their job description entails. Counselors, confidants and advocates for the patients and their families are some of the other hats they can put on. But press secretary shouldn’t necessarily be one of them.

The fact that we even know so much about Giffords’ condition isn’t the norm. Strict laws govern the disclosure of medical records to anyone outside the immediate family. It seems that with the blessing of her husband, the news media has let us all be part of her family as well. We can take part in the doubt, fear, anger, joy and optimism that must be going on every day in Giffords’ hospital room — without ever having to leave our homes.

“People are trying to see the best side of what otherwise is a horrible tragedy,” Schuster said. But the media’s role in making Giffords’ hazy prognosis into a cliffhanger for an upcoming episode may not be entirely appropriate.

Given the fickleness of brain healing, the media should not be reporting as if it’s a foregone conclusion that Giffords will triumphantly reappear in her Congress seat as the credits roll to thunderous applause.

Mark Attiah is a first-year medical student from Dallas, Texas. His e-mail address is attiah@theDP.com. Truth Be Told appears every other Thursday.

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