Pakistani Girl Nearly Killed by Taliban ‘Stable’ After First Night in UK
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Veronique de Viguerie/Getty Images(BIRMINGHAM, England) — The 14-year-old Pakistani girl who was targeted and nearly killed by the Taliban for supporting education for girls has made some progress after her first night in a British hospital.
Malala Yousufzai was transported in an air ambulance donated by the United Arab Emirates to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham, England, on Monday.
In a statement Tuesday, the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust said, “Malala spent a comfortable night in the Queen Elizabeth hospital and her condition this morning is described as ‘stable.’”
Yousufzai was shot in the head and neck last Tuesday while on her way home from school in Mingora, triggering an unprecedented wave of condemnation of the Taliban. The assailant reportedly approached her school bus and asked those on board to identify the young girl. He then shot her and two classmates before fleeing.
Since the shooting, the young girl has been kept under medical sedation and required a ventilator to breathe. Doctors reportedly removed her briefly from the ventilator late Sunday night, after the girl showed a positive response to treatment. Sometime afterwards, her medical team made the decision to fly her abroad.
Yousufzai’s medical expenses are being handled by the Pakistani government. A spokesman for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital said on Monday there’s a chance for her to make a good recovery.
She will have to undergo MRIs, CT scans and other procedures necessary before doctors can begin to try to reconstruct her skull.
Meanwhile, also on Tuesday, the hospital announced that there was “more than one” security incident there overnight involving people asking to see Yousufzai, claiming to be her family members.
Birmingham Police later issued a statement saying two well-wishers “were stopped in a public area of the hospital and questioned by police” before being turned away.
“No arrests were made and at no point was there any threat to Malala,” police said.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio