Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot in the head by the Taliban, is now recovering after skull surgery in Birmingham.
Malala Yousafzai, 15, was attacked in October after campaigning for girls’ rights to education.
A bullet was removed from her head by surgeons in Pakistan, before she was flown to the UK for further treatment.
Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital said a titanium plate and cochlear implant were successfully attached in two operations on Saturday.
A spokesperson said she was continuing to recover and was in a stable condition after the surgery, which lasted five hours.
They said the medical team was “very pleased” with the progress Malala Yousafzai had made so far and that she was awake and talking to staff and members of her family.
Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot in the head by the Taliban, is now recovering after skull surgery in Birmingham
Malala Yousafzai had been discharged as an inpatient from the hospital in January after undergoing weeks of specialist treatment.
The Queen Elizabeth is also home to the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine, which has treated many of the injured servicemen and women returning from Afghanistan.
In December the president of Pakistan, Asif Ali Zardari, visited her at the hospital.
Malala Yousafzai’s family are currently living in the West Midlands.
Her father has been appointed education attaché at the Consulate of Pakistan for the next three years.
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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.”
Pakistani schoolgirl activist Malala Yousafzai will soon undergo skull surgery to repair a missing area
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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Dante Autullo, a suburban Chicago man accidentally shot a 3.25 in (8.25 cm) nail into his skull but is recovering after doctors successfully removed it from the centre of his brain.
Dante Autullo, 34, was in his workshop when a nail gun recoiled near his head.
The man had no idea the nail had entered his brain until the next day, when he began feeling nauseous.
Doctors told Dante Autullo that the nail came within millimetres of the area used for motor function.
Dante Autullo’s fiancee, Gail Glaenzer, told the Associated Press on Friday that he was in good spirits after the two-hour surgery to remove the nail at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Illinois.
“He feels good. He moved all his limbs, he’s talking normal, he remembers everything,” she said.
“It’s amazing, a miracle.”
Dante Autullo, 34, was in his workshop when a nail gun recoiled near his head
Gail Glaenzer said she had no idea the nail had entered his skull when she cleaned a cut on his forehead.
The woman convinced him to go to the hospital after he felt nauseous for much of Wednesday.
Dante Autullo thought that the nail gun had simply hit his forehead, but realized later that when the gun came in contact with his head, the sensor recognized a flat surface and fired.
While there are pain-sensitive nerves on a person’s skull, there are none within the brain itself.
Hospital spokesman Mike Maggio said the part of the skull that was removed for surgery had to be replaced with a titanium mesh amid worries that it might have been contaminated by the nail.
