Pakistani schoolgirl activist Malala Yousafzai will soon undergo skull surgery to repair a missing area.
Surgeons at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital have been giving details about two procedures due to be carried out on the 15-year-old.
Malala Yousafzai was discharged from the hospital earlier this month after being shot in the head by the Taliban in October.
The hospital said Malala Yousafzai’s surgery would take place in the next 10 days.
The first procedure will involve drilling into her skull and inserting a custom-made metal plate.
Doctors said Malala Yousafzai was completely deaf in her left ear after being shot at point blank range.
The shockwave destroyed her eardrum and the bones for hearing.
The second procedure will involve fitting a small electronic device that provides a sense of sound to someone who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing.
Both procedures could take a total of four-and-a-half hours.
Dr. Dave Rosser, medical director at the QEHB, said: “Her recovery is remarkable and it’s a testament to her strength and desire to get better.
“There is no doubt that the surgery she underwent in Pakistan was life saving.
“Had that surgery not been of such a high standard she would have died.”
He added her full recovery could take another 15 to 18 months.
Dr. Dave Rosser said the missing part of Malala Yousafzai’s skull had been put in her abdomen by surgeons in Pakistan to “keep the bone alive”.
Doctors in Birmingham have chosen to use a metal plate to repair her skull instead of the bone in her abdomen, which they say may have shrunk.
Dr. Dave Rosser added Malala Yousafzai has asked to keep the bone once it has been removed.
Malala Yousafzai came to prominence when, as an 11-year-old, she wrote a diary for BBC Urdu, giving an account of how her school in Mingora town dealt with the Taliban’s 2009 edict to close girls’ schools.
Her love for education, and her courage in standing up to the Taliban, earned her a national peace award in 2011.
Tens of thousands of people have signed a petition calling for Malala Yousafzai to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
The Pakistan government has given Malala’s father, Ziaududdin Yousafzai, a job in Birmingham as the education attaché at the Consulate of Pakistan for at least three years.
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