Gabrielle Giffords, 41, received a standing ovation as she arrived in the U.S. House of Representatives on Monday night. Congresswoman Giffords made her first appearance in Congress since she was shot on Jan. 8 while holding a constituent meeting.
Giffords flew to Washington from Houston, where she is undergoing long term rehabilitation therapy. She is reported to have told House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi that she considered the vote on raising the debt ceiling important enough that she had to vote. She then returned to Houston, amid speculation about her political future.
While it was clear that Giffords' vote was not needed to pass the bill raising the debt ceiling, her presence is evocative of past votes where Senators or Congressmen were brought to the Capitol for a vote despite their medical condition.
In July 2008, Ted Kennedy appeared in the Senate chamber to vote on an important Medicare bill. Suffering from brain cancer, the 76-year-old was escorted by then-Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John Kerry. He would die just thirteen months later.
When the critical vote on the Women's Suffrage amendment to the Constitution was held in the House of Representatives, Congressman Henry A. Barnhart was carried into the chamber on a stretcher to cast his vote. Another Congressman left his wife's deathbed for the vote. A third cast his vote with a badly broken shoulder, refusing treatment until afterward.
In his final years, West Virginia's Sen. Robert Byrd was often seen around the Capitol in a wheelchair. At age 90, and beset by various medical problems, he voted and chaired committee meetings while aides wheeled him around the offices and the Senate floor.
Sen. Charles Sumner was beaten unconscious on the Senate floor by Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina. Sumner had delivered a lengthy oration against the expansion of slavery. Brooks felt that his uncle, a Senator, had been insulted and assaulted Sumner at his desk in the Senate chamber. Sumner would recover and serve in government for years to come.
Gifford's appearance for the vote to raise the debt ceiling was inspiring for many. Her continued recovery will take months and her plans for possibly running in 2012 will be based in part on how well she continues to recover.
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