Post date: Oct 19, 2012 1:55:28 PM
A doctor treating Pakistani girl Malala Yousafzai - who was shot in the head by theTaliban - says she is back on her feet and could make a full recovery.
PAKISTAN ( (GEO TV) - 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, a doctor at theBritish hospital treating her said on Friday (October 19).
Malala Yousufzai, who was shot for vocally opposing the Taliban, was flown fromPakistan 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.
Dr 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. "Having said that she's doing very well," he added.
"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 because she had undergone a tracheotomy 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 U.S. President Barack Obama.
The alleged organiser of the shooting was captured during a 2009 military offensive against the Taliban, but released after three months, two senior officials told Reuters.