The father of the youngest victim in last week's shooting in Arizona says he is once again a proud parent, after getting word that some of his daughter's organs had been donated.
John Green told The Boston Globe on Sunday that he received a phone call about the transplant and that some of nine-year-old Christina Taylor Green's organs had been donated to a young girl in the Boston area.
He told The Globe that the call lifted his spirit and gave him and his wife reason one more reason to be proud of their daughter, "who has done another amazing thing."
It is the latest uplifting news to come in recent days, as the United States attempts to recover from the tragedy that struck outside a Tucson, Ariz., grocery store last week.
Six people were killed and thirteen others were injured when a gunman opened fire on a crowd that had gathered to meet with congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords.
Giffords was shot in the head and has remained in an Arizona hospital since the attack. But she took another remarkable step in her recovery Sunday as doctors removed her from a ventilator and upgraded her from critical to serious condition.
Giffords' medical progress has surprised doctors in the past week, and there is much optimism surrounding her recovery.
Giffords had surgery Saturday morning to have a tube inserted into her windpipe to protect her airway. She has been breathing on her own since last Saturday, the day she was shot, but doctors kept the breathing tube in as a precaution.
Christina Taylor Green remembered
Hundreds of mourners attended a funeral for Green on Thursday, many wearing white T-shirts and standing along a road close to the church in a show of support.
An American flag that was recovered from the site of the 9-11 attacks in New York City was raised outside the church as a tribute to Green, who was born on the day the World Trade Center was destroyed.
Green had recently been elected to her student council and had attended the event where the shooting took place because of an interest in politics, something that President Barack Obama spoke of at a memorial service for the shooting victims on Wednesday night.
"She saw all this through the eyes of a child, undimmed by the cynicism or vitriol that we adults all too often just take for granted," Obama said.
"I want to live up to her expectations. I want our democracy to be as good as Christina imagined it. I want America to be as good as she imagined it."
Also on Saturday, the Tucson Safeway store where the shooting rampage took place reopened after a week-long closure. Some came to shop, but many more came to pay their respects to those who had been killed and injured.
Employees at the store observed a minute of silence in a memorial for the victims.
Accused gunman Jared Loughner has been charged with the attempted assassination of a member of Congress; two counts of killing an employee of the federal government; and two counts of attempting to kill a federal employee.
More charges are expected.
With files from The Associated Press
