I just watched a live press conference from University Medical Center on local TV. 8 victims are still hospitalized there: 2 in good or fair condition, 5 in serious condition, and one in critical condition (Congresswoman Giffords). One other patient has already been discharged. Giffords and one of the serious condition patients are in ICU, but the rest are on "regular" wards. Giffords continues to respond to simple commands (apparently things like squeezing a hand, wiggling toes). Assessing any more complicated function than that would be next to impossible with the ventilator and the heavy sedation. Swelling in her brain does not seem to be a problem, but apparently that normally peaks on or around the 3rd day post-trauma (which would be tomorrow). The doctors who spoke seemed confident that all of the other victims will survive, and are optimistic about Giffords, though one remarked "She's not out of the woods yet."

Something that the head of the trauma department brought up that I appreciated hearing was that their job isn't only to "fix" people physically, but to try to make them "whole" again emotionally and socially. He referenced their team of psychologists, psyciatrists, social workers, etc, who all have experience with trauma patients and PTSD, and that they will be working with all the patients through their recovery.

Bottom line, I guess we can be cautiously optimistic for all of the victims remaining in the hospital today.