CARRIE FEIBEL: Unidentified Woman: We're going to go a little bit slow because we want to work on your control.
FEIBEL: Unidentified Woman: Feet are getting a little too close together, Kaylie. If you can get them a little farther apart. There you go. Good. Step. Step.
FEIBEL: Kaylie's father, Monty(ph), says she was in a head-on collision with an 18-wheeler three weeks ago. The 16-year-old suffered a brain injury. Now she's walking again but her legs are loose, her steps sloppy and slow.
MONTY SCHWARZ: I think they're helping her a lot with walking. You know, just getting her to take the steps and she's listening to all the commands. She does everything. They're good. I think the therapists are really good.
FEIBEL: CEO Carl Josehart says rehabilitation can't always rebuild the damaged body, but it can help build a new way of life.
CARL JOSEHART: We sometimes call that the new normal, that not everyone always gets a hundred percent restoration. But we help them achieve a new normal and try to reintroduce all the aspects of their life that are meaningful to them.
FEIBEL: Dr. Mark Sherer is research director. He says patients often push passed even the expectations of their family members.
MARK SHERER: So they come in and, you know, maybe they're impaired, maybe they have, you know, tubes and so forth. And, you know, generally they're getting better. Most people with brain injury get substantially better. The prognosis for recovery is good and the rehabilitation is what facilitates that.
FEIBEL: Dr. Gerard Francisco is a rehabilitation professor at UT Health. He will oversee Giffords' care.
GERARD FRANCISCO: The way I look at these technological gizmos that we have is that they supplement rehab; that not one equipment will be able to be a substitute for the touch and the encouragement of a therapist.
FEIBEL: For NPR News, I'm Carrie Feibel in Houston. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
