Pakistani teen campaigner recovering after surgery
| Publisher | Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty |
| Publication Date | 4 February 2013 |
| Cite as | Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Pakistani teen campaigner recovering after surgery, 4 February 2013, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/512235b023.html [accessed 22 May 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
February 04, 2013
By RFE/RL
Malala Yousafzai was shot in October, 2012
A Pakistani teen peace activist is recovering after two successful operations in a British hospital.
A statement by Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital said that Malala Yousafzai had skull reconstruction and a cochlear implant surgery to restore her hearing on February 2.
Malala, 15, was shot in October while she was returning home from her school in Pakistan's northwestern volatile Swat region.
The hospital statement added that the two operations lasted a total of five hours and the medical team was "very pleased" with the progress she has made so far. It added that Malala was awake and talking to staff and members of her family.
Earlier on January 30, Dave Rosser, a doctor at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, gave the details of the procedure which was used to replace a missing part of her skull with a titanium plate.
"She does still have the portion of skull that was removed in Pakistan in the initial surgery implanted in her abdomen, but the surgeons, in consultation with Malala, have decided that fitting of a titanium plate is a better long-term procedure than trying to reimplant this bone after such a long period of time," Rosser said.
"So instead of replanting the bone, the bone will be removed from under the skin in her stomach and cleaned up and sterilized and given to Malala who wishes to keep it as a memory I guess."
The October 9 attack on Malala drew widespread international condemnation. She was shot in the head at point-blank range as she returned home in a school van.
She was targeted by militants for her work in promoting girls' education and writing a blog about Taliban atrocities in 2009.
Some 250,000 people have signed an online petition calling for Malala to be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.
She is receiving treatment at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital's specialist unit where doctors have treated hundreds of soldiers wounded in conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq.
With reporting by Reuters, AP, and the BBC
Link to original story on RFE/RL website
