Malala back on her feet
20 October, 2012
LONDON: Malala Yousufzai has stood up with help for the first time but remains seriously ill, doctors treating her at a British hospital said Friday. She is unable to talk due to the breathing tube inserted into her windpipe but she can communicate by writing, said Dave Rosser, the medical director at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, central England. The teenager escaped certain death by a matter of centimetres (inches), with the bullet grazing the edge of her brain, he revealed. Though Malala has the potential to make "pretty much a full recovery", Rosser warned that she is "not out of the woods yet" – her doctors' chief concern being an infection in the bullet track through her head. The hospital released a first picture of Malala, in her hospital bed, clutching a teddy bear. "Malala is still showing some signs of infection... in the bullet track which is our key source of concern," Rosser told reporters outside the hospital. "It's clear that she is not out of the woods yet. "Having said that, she is doing very well. In fact, she was standing with some help for the first time this morning when I went in to see her." He explained that Malala's airway became swollen after the bullet passed through it, so doctors inserted a tracheotomy tube to protect it. End.
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