Brave schoolgirl the Taleban couldn’t kill leaves hospital

By KATIE HODGE
Published on 05/01/2013 00:46

A PAKISTANI girl who was shot in the head by the Taleban has been discharged from hospital in the UK.

Malala Yousafzai, 15, was targeted for backing women’s rights to education in her home country and was later flown to the UK for specialist care.

British doctors have been delighted with her recovery which will continue at her family’s temporary home in the West Midlands.

Malala left the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham after doctors decided she was well enough to be treated as an outpatient.

The teenager, from the town of Mingora, in the Swat district of Pakistan, was pictured waving and embracing medical staff as she walked out of hospital.

She will visit the hospital regularly to attend clinical appointments and is due to return for cranial reconstructive surgery in the next few weeks.

Dave Rosser, medical director at the Birmingham NHS trust, said: “Malala is a strong young woman and has worked hard with the people caring for her to make excellent progress in her recovery.

“Following discussions with Malala and her medical team, we decided that she would benefit from being at home with her parents and two brothers.

“She will return to the hospital as an outpatient and our therapies team will continue to work with her at home to supervise her onward care.”

Malala left hospital as it emerged that she was likely to secure permanent residence in the UK, after her father was granted a job with the Pakistani consulate in Birmingham.

Ziauddin Yousafzai has been appointed education attache for three years, with the option of an extension for a further two years.

He and his daughter have had threats made against their lives by the Taleban since the shooting.

The appointment came after Pakistan’s president Asif Ali Zardari visited Malala and her ­father in hospital on 8 ­December.

Mr Zardari was said to have assured Mr Yousafzai the Pakistani government would pay for Malala’s treatment and all the family’s needs while in the UK.

Over the past couple of weeks, Malala has taken regular “home leave” to spend time with her father, mother Toorpekai and younger brothers, Khushal and Atul.

Her ordeal began when she was severely injured in a school bus shooting on 9 October. She received immediate treatment in Pakistan where surgeons removed a bullet which entered just above her left eye and ran along her jaw, grazing her brain.

The teenager was then flown to the UK and was admitted to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital on 15 October.

She was pictured in November sitting up in her bed reading cards from supporters.

At the time, her father issued a statement saying: “She wants me to tell everyone how grateful she is and is amazed that men, women and children from across the world are interested in her wellbeing.

“I am awfully thankful to all the peace-loving well-wishers who strongly condemn the ­assassination attempt on Malala, who pray for her health and support the grand cause of peace, education, freedom of thought and freedom of 
expression.”