LONDON — A Pakistani girl shot in the head by Taliban gunmen is “not out of the woods”, but is doing well and has been able to stand for the first time with some help, doctors at the British hospital treating her have said. Malala Yousufzai, who was shot for vocally opposing the Taliban, was flown from Pakistan to Birmingham to receive treatment after the attack earlier this month, which drew widespread international condemnation.
She has become a potent symbol of resistance to the radical Islamist group’s effort to deny women an education and other rights. Dave Rosser, the medical director of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, said she was now able to write and appeared to have memory recall despite her brain injuries.
“It’s clear that she’s not out of the woods yet,” Rosser told reporters, saying she had sustained a “very very grave injury”. But he said she was “doing very well”.
“In fact, she was standing with some help for the first time this morning. She’s communicating very freely, writing,” he said Her medical team said the teenager was not able to speak though because she had undergone a trachiostomy so that she could breathe through a tube in her neck. This operation was performed because her airways had been swollen by the bullet, Rosser said.
She was shot in the head and neck as she left school in Swat, northwest of Islamabad.
The Taliban have said they attacked her because she spoke out against the group and praised US President Barack Obama. — Reuters
