Some great news out of Birmingham, England where Malala Yousafzai is being treated following a terrorist attack on her. She has been writing and communicating with her doctors and has agreed, and is eager, for them to give details of her condition. She has also been able to stand with assistance. There are concerns that the wound left by the bullet track is infected and she is being treated for this.
More below the orange squiggle but note this does contain further details of her injuries.
The BBC written report is sparse on detail but the hospital verbal statement explained that the bullet had entered the left side of her head, shattered the jaw joint and lodged into her neck muscles.
"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.
In terms of her future care, the specialist teams looking after her estimate she will need a few weeks to rehabilitate and ensure the infection clears up.
Part of her skull will then need to be reconstructed either by reinserting the bone that was removed or with a titanium plate.
The hospital has stopped some people claiming to be her relatives from seeing her. These are believed to be wellwishers rather than any threat but she is in a secure area. The Queen Elizabeth Hospital is a new hospital which opened in 2010. It has a purpose built department for treating British military personnel injured on duty so has specialists in treating her sort of injuries.
The Royal Centre for Defence Medicine has staff from all three branches of the armed services. They wear a distinctive (from the other nurses) "scrubs" type uniform with the insignia of their military rank* but are fully integrated with the civilian staff so can treat all patients needing their specialism.
The ex-British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown who is now a UN Special Envoy for Global Education has launched a web site with a petition you can sign by entering your email details to receive more information:
We call on Pakistan to agree a plan to deliver education for every child.
We call on all countries to outlaw discrimination against girls.
We call on international organizations to ensure the world’s 61 million out of school children are in education by the end of 2015.
In Pakistan, the government has given Malala the nations highest award. The Sunni Ittehad Council has
condemned the attack by issuing a fatwa or religious edict against it and declaring:
"Islam doesn't prohibit women from getting education. The attackers transgressed the Islamic Hudood (principles),"
p.s. roseeriter had a
diary posted earlier before the statement from the hospital today. I thought it worthwhile doing a separate diary in view of the extra information I have.
*Update: Further delving in the QEHB web site I found this gallery showing the day they moved patients from the two old hospitals into the new building. This jpegpicture shows part of the military wing. In the foreground from left to right there appears to be a male nurse from the navy, a doctor in Army uniform and a nurse in the army "scrubs". In the background you can see light blue scrubs indicating the nurse is from the RAF. (Some NHS hospitals use darker to indicate senior nurses and lighter blue uniforms for junior nurses. This is also standard for NHS Wales but the white piping on the arms looks like the standard Royal Navy design)
For clarity, the images from the last on row three to the first two on row nine appear to show the actual move and the old buildings.
To answer those concerned about Malala's security, you can likely see that the buildings are fairly protected from outside car bombing. Visitors' parking is away from them. In addition, some reports have mentioned armed police on guard near her room but obviously details are being kept confidential.