Malala Yousufzai, who was shot in the head by the Taliban
for advocating girls' education, sits in her hospital bed
in this still taken from video provided by the Queen
Elizabeth Hospital, in Birmingham. REUTERS/Queen Elizabeth
Hospital
A Pakistani schoolgirl who underwent reconstructive
surgery in Britain after being shot in the head by the Taliban
says she feels much better and is focused on her mission to
help others.
A team of doctors carried out a five-hour operation on
15-year-old Malala Yousufzai on Saturday (local time) to mend
parts of her skull with a titanium plate and help restore
hearing on her left side with a cochlear implant.
Speaking 24 hours after waking up from surgery at Queen
Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, central England, Yousufzai
said she was already walking around.
"I can walk a little bit, I can talk and I'm feeling better,"
she said from her hospital bed in a video clip released by
the hospital.
"I think I will just get better very soon, and there will be
no problem. The thing is my mission is the same, to help
people, and I will do that," she said.
Yousufzai was shot in the head at point-blank range in
October by the Taliban for advocating girls' education, and
was brought to Britain for treatment.
Doctors at the hospital said they were impressed by her
recovery so far and hopeful she would be discharged fairly
soon, describing her as focused and enthusiastic.
"She should be feeling sorry for herself 24 hours after an
operation like that, not talking about helping other people,"
said Dave Rosser, the hospital's medical director.
The attack on Yousufzai, as she left school in the Swat
valley, drew widespread international condemnation, and the
schoolgirl has become a symbol of resistance to the Taliban's
efforts to deny women education and other rights.
"There's still a lot of support (for Yousufzai) coming in, a
lot of communication coming in from around the world," Rosser
said.
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