[bbfan1991]

Doctors have revealed how they are going to repair a missing area of the skull of Pakistani schoolgirl activist Malala Yousafzai.

Surgeons at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital have been giving details about two procedures due to be carried out on the 15-year-old.

Malala was discharged from the hospital earlier this month after being shot in the head by the Taliban in October.

The hospital said the surgery would take place in the next 10 days.

The first procedure will involve drilling into her skull and inserting a custom-made metal plate.

Doctors said Malala had been left completely deaf in her left ear when she was shot at point-blank range.

'Remarkable recovery'

The shockwave destroyed her eardrum and the bones for hearing.

The second procedure will involve fitting a small electronic device that provides a sense of sound to someone who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing.

Prosthetist Stefan Edmondson at BQEH explains how a titanium plate can be used to repair a damaged skull
Dr Dave Rosser, medical director at the QEHB, said: "Her recovery is remarkable and it's a testament to her strength and desire to get better.

"There is no doubt that the surgery she underwent in Pakistan was life saving.

"Had that surgery not been of such a high standard she would have died."

He added each procedure should take about 90 minutes and her full recovery could take another 15 to 18 months.

Dr Rosser said the missing part of Malala's skull had been put in her abdomen by surgeons in Pakistan, in order to "keep the bone alive".

Doctors in Birmingham have chosen to use a metal plate to repair her skull instead of that bone, which they say may have shrunk.

Dr Rosser added this was common practice worldwide to keep the bone healthy.

He said: "Malala currently has no skull, she only has skin covering the brain."

'Unique' hospital

Malala has asked to keep the bone once it has been removed, said Dr Rosser.

The QEHB is home to the Royal Centre for Defence Medicine where members of the armed service who have been injured overseas are treated.

Dr Rosser said the hospital was "unique" because all the treatment Malala required could be done within the same organisation.

Stefan Edmondson, principal maxillofacial prosthetist, at the QEHB said: "What we're doing here could be done elsewhere but because we're such a large super-regional unit with a large neurological unit we see a lot more advanced cranial defects.

"We're fortunate in that aspect to see a lot more complicated cases and [it means] we have the software here."

Malala came to prominence when, as an 11-year-old, she wrote a diary for BBC Urdu, giving an account of how her school in Mingora town dealt with the Taliban's 2009 edict to close girls' schools.

Her love for education, and her courage in standing up to the Taliban, earned her a national peace award in 2011.

Tens of thousands of people have signed a petition calling for Malala to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

The Pakistan government has given Malala's father, Ziaududdin Yousafzai, a job in Birmingham as the education attache at the Consulate of Pakistan for at least three years.

Good luck to her and I hope the operation goes well.

[Kizzy]

The brave girl! A nobel prize would be well deserved.

[Omah]

Best wishes for her continuing recovery .....

[Kazanne]

Agree with Kizzy,she's very brave and a inspiring young woman.

[AnnieK]

Very brave girl to speak out for what she believes. A true role model and inspirational....wishing her a speedy recovery.

[Shaun]

Just watched an interview with her on the Daily Show I hope she wins the Nobel Peace Prize.

[Z]

Such a brave, brave girl!

[GypsyGoth]

I watched an interview with her on american news and she said that before she was shot by a gunman she had a plan, if such a scenario ever happened, to talk to him about how he would want his daughter to have a chance to get educated, and he wouldn't shoot her because it would dawn on him that she was doing a good thing.

Sadly she overestimated the compassion in the hearts of the savages she was challenging. They shot her without even giving her a chance to speak. All they asked when they boarded the school bus was - Who is Malala?

And naturally she was pretty scared so she said nothing. Anyway that is why her book is called - I am Malala. It's her answer to what was asked before they shot her.

[Kizzy]

I think she gives them too much credit too, I guess it's a similar senario to say guards in concentration camps they had either been indoctrinated or it was kill or be killed?
I hope she doesn't dwell on the thoughts running through the gunmans head too much, if ever there was an example of good coming from evil this is it.