Doctors told paralysed APS attack victim he would never walk again — they were wrong

Muhammad Ibrahim Khan was shot four times, paralysing him from the waist down

A thirteen-year-old boy paralysed after being shot in the Army Public School attack in Peshawar has made a remarkable recovery, one that was impossible to imagine when he arrived in London for treatment.

Muhammad Ibrahim Khan had been shot four times in the deadly attack on Peshawar’s Army Public School, paralysing him from waist down. He had been told by doctors that he would never walk again.

Khans’s parents refused to accept that their cricket-loving son would never be able to walk again. After campaigning on TV and gaining PTI chief Imran Khan' support, they were able to raise funds to bring their son to the UK for treatment at The Harley Street Clinic in London.

Read: Chehlum of Peshawar attack: K-P announces public holiday across the province on Tuesday

Irfan Malik, Consultant neurosurgeon says that Khan was ‘terrified’ when he first arrived at the hospital. "He'd spent the last [few] months lying on a bed, unable to move side to side," says Mr Malik. "He was weak, he had a pressure sore [on his back]. He wasn't in great shape."

PHOTO: BBC

Speaking about Khan’s condition, Malik revealed that a vertebra at the base of his spine was destroyed - having been shot in his back, hip and shoulder during the attack - which lead to paralysis. But after a six-hour surgery Malik and his team were able to reattach nerve endings and reconstruct the damaged part of the spine, leading Khan to an unanticipated recovery.

"Exactly one week after the surgery Muhammad stood up and started taking steps and walking." "We were not expecting to get that sort of excellent result. That was miraculous," he says.

PHOTO: BBC

Within two weeks of the operation Khan is fit to leave the hospital and begin further recovery. Khan wants to regain his strength and continue to study in the UK and wishes to return to Pakistan to join the army to fight terrorism.

"I feel like I have a second chance at life," he says as he shows off pictures he's drawn of guns scribbled out next to school books and pens

"My anger is not diminishing" he says. "In my school little kids were killed. What was their crime?"

His mother, wiping a tear from her eye, caressed his head and said: "I can see my son walking again. He'll be able to get on with his normal life".

Read: APS attack victim fears returning home after treatment in Britain

Over 150 people, mostly students were killed in the heinous attack on an Army Public School in Peshawar, on December 16, 2014. Following the attack, the government lifted the moratorium on death penalties in the country and formed a National Action Plan, which went on to establish military courts to try terrorists.

This article originally appeared on BBC