Malala Yousafzai can make smooth recovery, doctors say

Taliban bullet grazed Pakistani girl's brain but doctors say she is writing, has memory and has expressed gratitude for support

guardian.co.uk, Caroline Davies, Friday 19 October 2012

Malala Yousafzai has given permission for her medical details to
be revealed. Photograph: Reuters

Malala Yousafzai, the teenage girl flown to Britain for treatment after being shot in the head by Taliban gunmen in Pakistan, has the potential to make "pretty much a full recovery", her doctors have said.

She is able to stand with help and is writing notes, and although the bullet grazed her brain she has not shown "any deficit in terms of function", doctors at Queen Elizabeth hospital in Birmingham said on Friday.

She was "not out of the woods but is doing very well", said Dr Dave Rosser, medical director of the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS foundation trust.

Malala, whose age was given as 15 by the hospital, and not 14 as previously reported, was shot 10 days ago on her school bus after promoting the education of girls and criticising Taliban militants.

Initially treated by neurosurgeons at a Pakistani military hospital before being flown to the UK on Monday, she awoke from a medically induced coma on Tuesday afternoon and reportedly asked: "Which country am I in?"

The bullet, fired at point-blank range, struck just above the back of the left eye, went down through the side of her jaw, damaging the skull and the jaw joint on the left side, went through the neck and lodged in the tissues above the shoulder blade. Shock waves from the bullet shattered the thinnest bone of the skull and fragments were driven into the brain.

"The bullet grazed the edge of her brain," Rosser said. "Certainly if you're talking a couple of inches more central, then it's almost certainly an unsurvivable injury."

Doctors say she has memory but they have not talked to her about the shooting. "From a lot of work we have done with our military casualties we know that reminding people of traumatic events at this stage increases the potential for psychological problems later, so we wouldn't do that," Rosser said.

He said Malala was aware of her surroundings, and though she couldn't talk because she had a tracheotomy tube, she had given permission for medical details to be revealed, and wanted to thank everyone for their support.

She was still showing some signs of infection, related to the bullet track, but "she was standing with some help for the first time this morning. She is communicating very freely. She is writing. She has a tracheotomy tube because her airway was swollen by the passing of the bullet, so she is not able to talk, though we have no reason to believe she won't be able to talk once this tube is out, which may be in the next few days."

The specialist doctors, who have expertise in treating soldiers with gunshot injuries flown back from Afghanistan, said it was a "fluid situation" and Malala had suffered "a very, very grave injury". She will need a couple of weeks to rehabilitate before her skull will need to be reconstructed and work may be carried out on her jaw.

Rosser said it was too early to say whether there would be "any subtle intellectual or memory deficit down the line". But in terms of function, "she is able to understand, she has some memory, I am led to believe, she is able to stand, she's got motor control, she's able to write. It certainly would be over-optimistic to say that there is not going to be any further problems, but it is possible she will make a smooth recovery. It's impossible to tell."

He said the hospital was trying to arrange for Malala to listen to her father, who remains in Pakistan, on the phone, though she would not be able to speak to him because of the tube. Hospital staff were communicating with her in Urdu, though it was clear she understood English.

"She is keen that people share the details. She is also keen that I thank people for their support and their interest. She is obviously aware of the amount of support and interest this has generated around the world. She is keen to thank people for that," Rosser said.

Malala was shot along with two classmates as they made their way home from school in north-west Pakistan, in what the foreign secretary, William Hague, described as a "barbaric attack".

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Archangel Michael: It’s Time to Let Go of the Old (AAM channeled by Linda Dillon) - New

“……

AAM: Let us speak first to the terrible — and I use “terrible” in its truest sense — terrible issue of racism, of hatred, of control. Because all racism, all fanaticism, whether it is political or religious or economic — there is a great deal of economic fanaticism on your planet still, and you see it every day -  is bred from a very peculiar mix, and it is bred from fear, entitlement, and what you may choose to call karma and what I will refer to as some past-life bleed-through.

These people are going to have a very hard time if they choose to resist and fight. And that is why we ask each of you to make sure that you are the transmitters and the beamers, but that you are not becoming involved in that morass of chaos, that they undoubtedly are creating and will create.

It is all stemming from a lack of self worth and self love, an unknowing of deservingness and of worth. Because when you are in your heart and you know, innately, deeply, fully of your connection to the One, of your divinity, and that you hold that love not in a superficial way that we so often witness upon your planet… it has improved, but it is still there. When there is really love there can be no hatred or disgust with those that you deem or designate as less than. It is such an absurd construct, that. Did we not understand the various levels and the emanations, we would simply shake our heads. So will this be wrenched from them? They have a choice, and, if they choose to continue to cling, then of course the choice is they will be relocated elsewhere. But what I am also saying, individually — and you think, “How can you do this, Michael, individually to millions upon millions of millions of people?” Well, I suggest you leave that to us. They will have their confrontations with their egos, and they will also have their opportunities to see their divinity and to acknowledge the equality of all beings.

For many, it will be extremely uncomfortable. But it is necessary. That is why we have encouraged so many to do the work, so that you are not at the last minute being wrenched in this way. That is partially what Syria is about. That is what Milala in Afghanistan is about. It is the choice, for people to look at that and say, “How can this be? And how could I hold such hatred in my heart?”

Now, these examples have been brought up to you time and again. The shootings, long ago, Martin Luther King, the freedom fighters, the executions, in Iraq and Iran. These are the mirrors that are held up to those who think they are better than, because that is the end result of hatred and entitlement.

It is pathetic.

SB: Lord, could I intervene at this moment and say that photos have been produced that suggest that Milala’s shooting was staged. There’s a photo of her not having any throat wound. There’s a photo of her walking to the helicopter. Was it staged, or not?

AAM: No, it was not staged. It was a brutal attack.

SB: All right. Thank you.

AAM: Was it staged by us? Yes!

SB: What do you mean by that, Lord?

AAM: I mean it is an opportunity. Is it real in physical form? Yes. Is it real in terms of an opportunity for people to say, “This type of persecution has need to end”? Yes.  ……….”