THE FAMILY of Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head by the Taliban, have visited her in hospital after arriving in Britain, a spokeswoman said on Friday (October 26).
The 15-year-old’s mother, father and two brothers arrived in the city of Birmingham in central England on Thursday (October 25) and went straight to see her at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.
“Her mum, dad and her two brothers are here in the UK,” a spokeswoman for the hospital told reporters.
“They visited last night.”
After flying into Britain’s second city, they were given a police escort through Birmingham to the hospital.
In an attack which outraged the world, Malala was shot on a school bus in the former Taliban stronghold of Pakistan’s Swat valley on October 9 as a punishment for campaigning for the right of girls to an education.
On October 15 she was flown from Pakistan to Birmingham in a medically-induced coma, and taken to the highly specialised hospital where staff have extensive experience of treating British soldiers seriously wounded in Afghanistan.
The hospital said Malala was still comfortable and continued to respond well to treatment.
She has received thousands of goodwill messages from around the world since she was attacked.
The bullet, which grazed her brain and came within centimetres of killing her, travelled through her head and neck before lodging in her left shoulder.
It will take weeks to months for Malala to defeat an infection in the bullet track and recover her strength enough to face surgery.
Her skull will need reconstructing either by reinserting bone or using a titanium plate.
The response of Pakistan to the shooting by the Taliban of schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai was a “turning point” for the country, her father said on Friday at the British hospital where she is recovering.
“When she fell, Pakistan stood and the world rose. This is a turning point,” Ziauddin Yousafzai said, adding that his 15-year-old daughter was recovering “at an encouraging speed” in the hospital in Birmingham.
“She is not just my daughter, she is everybody’s daughter,” said her father, who was clearly emotional.
He thanked the doctors at the hospital, where Malala was brought from Pakistan on October 15.
Yousafzai said: “She got the right treatment, at the right place, at the right time.”
