Prayers answered: Malala thanks well-wishers – in writing

Doctors say teenage peace icon ‘communicating freely’ by writing notes despite signs of infection.

LONDON:

Teenage activist Malala Yousafzai is finally out of coma – much to the relief of scores of well-wishers who eagerly await her complete recovery.

The schoolgirl has been able to stand with help for the first time, doctors treating her at a British hospital said Friday. She is also communicating by writing notes, said Doctor Dave Rosser, the medical director at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, central England, where the teenager was taken to from Pakistan on Monday.

“She first regained consciousness on Tuesday and asked which country she was in,” Dr Rosser told a news conference. Her skull will need some reconstruction in a few weeks time, he added. “At the moment there seems to be no damage to her memory or motor control.”

The BBC quoted Dr Rosser as saying that Malala was “doing very well” and was eager for details about her condition to be shared more widely. “Malala is now well enough ... she is happy, in fact, keen for us to share quite a lot of clinical detail with you,” he said. “She’s communicating very freely, she’s writing,” he added.

“She is still showing some signs of infection, which is probably related to the bullet track. [There is] some infection in the bullet track, which is our key source of concern,” he told reporters.

Malala is unable to give any statements herself at the moment, because of the tracheotomy she had to undergo for her swollen airway. The swelling was caused by the second bullet that struck between her neck and shoulder.

“Malala has asked me to thank everyone for their support on her behalf,” said Dr Rosser. Asked if she recalled any details of the attack on her, the doctor said that they were keeping communication limited to doctor-patient consultation.

More than 2,000 people from around the world have posted messages for Malala on the University Hospital’s Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust website.

“Malala Yousafzai’s condition this morning is comfortable and stable,” the hospital said in a statement on Friday.

ITV television reported that the hospital was trying to arrange for her to listen to her father on the telephone, though she is currently unable to talk. “We know there was some damage to the brain, certainly no physical, no deficit in terms of function,” it quoted a spokesman as saying.

A hospital spokeswoman told AFP Malala was 15, not 14 as previously stated.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 20^th, 2012.