Rep. Gabrielle Giffords Off Ventilator for the First Time

Another milestone for Gabrielle Giffords: Doctors today took her off a ventilator for the first time since last week's shooting, reports CNN. They removed her breathing tube—she was breathing on her own all along, but it had been left in as a precaution—and replaced it with a tracheotomy tube to help her breathe better.

Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords continues to improve after the weekend's deadly shooting spree in Tucson, Ariz., with doctors reporting she has begun breathing without assistance.

In an interview, Dr. Peter Rhee, the chief of trauma at the medical center, said Giffords was moving both arms, although her left arm was more active than her right, and moving her eyes. Previously, doctors had said that she was moving only her left arm, which is controlled by the right hemisphere of her brain — the side that was not penetrated by the bullet.