Tucson: As residents lined the streets to bid a bittersweet farewell to Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who was moved to a rehabilitation hospital in Houston on Friday, she responded to their cheers with a smile and tears, her doctor said.
"She could hear it," said Dr Randall Friese, a trauma surgeon who accompanied Giffords to Texas.
"She smiled, and then she actually teared up a little bit. It was very emotional, very heart-wrenching."
So was the raw sentiment on the streets of Tucson, an outpouring of reverence that appeared to bind the battered city together 13 days after a gunman killed six people and wounded 13, including Giffords.
The Arizona Democrat, who was shot through the head, left her hometown with the kind of police motorcade and live TV coverage often reserved for a head of state.
"We just wanted to come today and say goodbye," said Dot Jones, 63, her eyes welling with tears as the procession passed.
"In some ways, I don't think Tucson will ever get over it," said her husband, John, 63.
Led by a dozen police motorcycles, an ambulance carrying Giffords left University Medical Center at 9.22am and drove to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, where she was transferred onto an air ambulance for the flight to Houston.
Giffords' husband, Mark Kelly, her mother, Gloria Giffords, an intensive care nurse and two congressional aides also accompanied her.
After the flight landed, a medevac helicopter ferried Giffords to the trauma centre at TIRR Memorial Hermann hospital.
Doctors said that the transfer went flawlessly and that Giffords would get her first rehabilitation session Friday afternoon.
"She looks spectacular," Dr Dong Kim, chief neurosurgeon, said at a news conference.
"She looks awake, calm and comfortable."
Dr John Holcomb, who heads the medical team, said Giffords would remain in the intensive care unit at least until next week to ensure no infections develop.
Kim said Giffords may require four to six months of speech and physical therapy.
Doctors will move her to the hospital's Institute for Rehabilitation and Research, which specialises in the treatment of brain injuries.
