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Subscribe to RSSUpdated at 2:45 p.m. ET: LONDON -- Malala Yousufzai, the 14-year-old Pakistani schoolgirl shot in the head by the Taliban, has every chance of making a "good recovery," British doctors said on Monday as she arrived at a hospital in central England for treatment of her severe wounds.
Yousufzai, who was shot for advocating education for girls, was flown from Pakistan to receive specialist treatment at a unit at Birmingham's Queen Elizabeth Hospital that has expertise in dealing with complex trauma cases. The unit has treated hundreds of soldiers wounded in Afghanistan.
"Doctors... believe she has a chance of making a good recovery on every level," said Dr. Dave Rosser, the hospital's medical director, adding that her treatment and rehabilitation could take months.
He told reporters Yousufzai, whose shooting has drawn widespread condemnation, had not yet been assessed by British medics but said she would not have been brought to Britain at all if her prognosis was not good.
TV footage showed a patient, believed to be the schoolgirl, being rushed from an ambulance into the hospital surrounded by a large team of medical staff.
She will undergo scans to reveal the extent of her injuries, but Rosser said doctors could not provide any further details without her agreement.
Pakistani surgeons removed a bullet from near the girl's spinal cord during a three-hour operation the day after the attack last week, but she now needs intensive specialist follow-up care. Treatment is likely to include repairing damaged bones in her skull and complex neurological follow-up.
"Injuries to bones in the skull can be treated very successfully by the neurosurgeons and the plastic surgeons, but it is the damage to the blood supply to the brain that will determine long-term disability," said Duncan Bew, consultant trauma surgeon at Barts Health NHS Trust in London. Judging the best way forward in such difficult cases requires a wide range of experienced medics working as a team.
"In trauma, it is really the coordinated impact of intensive care that is critical. It's not just about keeping the patient alive but also maximising their rehabilitation potential. With neurological injuries that is paramount," Bew said.
Doctors said youth was on her side since a young brain has more ability to recover from injury than a mature one.
"On the positive side, Malala has passed two major hurdles - the removal of the bullet and the very critical 48-hour window after surgery," said Anders Cohen, head of neurosurgery at the Brooklyn Hospital Center in New York.
British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Yousufzai would receive specialized care in a hospital in the country’s National Health Service system.
"Last week's barbaric attack on Malala Yousufzai and her school friends shocked Pakistan and the world. Malala's bravery in standing up for the right of all young girls in Pakistan to an education is an example to us all,” Hague said in a statement.
Queen Elizabeth Hospital is the main receiving facility for British soldiers wounded in Afghanistan, and the spokeswoman said the staff were confident they would be able to provide Yousufzai with the necessary care.
Read more on this story at ITV News
Earlier, a medical team from the United Arab Emirates decided that Yousufzai would require prolonged care to recover fully from the physical and psychological trauma, a Pakistani military statement said before she left for Britain. The panel of doctors recommended she receive treatment abroad, the statement said.
Yousufzai's family was consulted and their wishes were taken into consideration, according to the military.
Attacked while leaving school
Yousufzai was leaving school in her hometown in the Swat Valley in northwest Pakistan on Oct. 9 when she was shot in the head and neck by the Taliban for speaking out against the militants and promoting education for girls.
Yousufzai, a cheerful schoolgirl who had wanted to become a doctor before agreeing to her father's wishes that she strive to be a politician, has become a potent symbol of resistance against the Taliban's efforts to deprive girls of education.
On Sunday, tens of thousands rallied in Pakistan's largest city in support of Yousufzai.
The demonstration in the southern city of Karachi was by far the largest since Yousufzai and two of her classmates were shot.
Still, most government officials have refrained from publicly criticizing the Taliban by name over the attack, in what critics say is a lack of resolve against extremism.
Opponents of Pakistan's government and military say the shooting is another example of the state's failure to tackle militancy, the biggest threat to the stability of the nuclear-armed South Asian country.
The shooting of Yousufzai was the culmination of years of campaigning that had pitted the young girl against one of Pakistan's most ruthless Taliban commanders, Maulana Fazlullah.
Reuters TV
Fourteen-year-old Malala Yousufzai is transported from a hospital in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, on Monday.
‘Public revulsion and condemnation’
The attack horrified people inside and outside Pakistan and sparked hope among some that it would prompt the government to intensify its fight against the Taliban and their allies.
“The public revulsion and condemnation of this cowardly attack shows that the people of Pakistan will not be beaten by terrorists. The U.K. stands shoulder to shoulder with Pakistan in its fight against terrorism,” Britain’s Hague said in his statement.
But protests against the shooting have been relatively small until now, usually attracting no more than a few hundred people.
That response pales in comparison to the tens of thousands of people who held violent protests in Pakistan last month against a film produced in the United States that denigrated Islam's Prophet Muhammad.
Shakil Adil / AP
Fourteen-year-old Malala Yousufzai was shot by the Taliban on Tuesday for speaking out against the militants and promoting education for girls.
Fresh Taliban attack
The Taliban struck again on Sunday night, attacking the police outpost near Peshawar with rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire, according to Reuters. Security officials said at least six policemen were killed, including two who were beheaded.
Seven policemen are still missing and presumed kidnapped. Several police cars and an armored vehicle were torched.
Complete World coverage on NBCNews.com
The Taliban has been blamed for many suicide bombings across Pakistan and have also staged sophisticated, high-profile attacks on the military, one of the biggest in the world.
Pakistan's interior minister said police had dispatched guards to protect journalists who had been threatened by Taliban militants angered by coverage of Yousufzai's case.
The Taliban, based mostly in the unruly ethnic Pashtun tribal areas near the Afghan border, have said they would now try to kill her father, a headmaster of a girls' school in Swat.
Reuters and NBC News' Fakhar Rehman contributed to this report.
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Headline on MSN.com is poorly written; implies that the Taliban shot a girl in the UK... should read Girl shot by Taliban "now" in UK... one word, subtract the "" and it's much clearer.
Well I'm glad another country is footing the bill for a change for people who are brought from other countries for health care. Of course once they get her back on her feet they will probably send her here to the U.S. for further treatment for the rest of her life.
Such a humanitarian. You are one of three or four people that are that much of a jackass.
I'll be glad to do it, and foot the bill for your labotomy too. A mind is a terrible thing to waste.
Fortunately for her she is in a UK hospital and not a US one where she would have received a bill of $1M and would have been left on the streets to die about now for failure to pay.
May she make a full recovery and follow her dreams to be a Doctor. The best kind of revenge for her is to go after her dreams. That alone is a start to show the cowards that did this they can't win. I wish her and her family the very best.
O'Rocky, there's a storm coming, I can hear the thunder in the distance for it is coming and it has this childs name all over it!
Taliban just made her even stronger.
I wish her a speedy recovery and eventually she will become one of the leaders in the world in the fight against abuse of women. She is a brave girls. May God bless her.
For the Taliban shooting 14-year-old Malala Yousufzai is the biggest mistake they have ever done. Now the world will see her as a symbol for rights of Women and Children and her voice will be the loudest and clearest for the entire world to see and hear! No Nation, No Army will have the force this Child will have in the near future!!!!! Are we now looking at the future equivalence of shaping the world as Mohamed Gandhi in this young girl, I wonder ?????
Those barbaric cowards who kill in the name of their religious beliefs need to be taken behind a woodshed and either shot to death or beat the crap out of them and tell them to grow up.
Religion can only be changed by changing ones mind or wiping them out. I prefer changing there minds over force but this child will have the force of no other but God himself, you watch!
Sick and tired of these blowfish going off at the mouth through their 'spokesmen'. The Taliban envoys as well as those that sent them should all be thrown into the fiery pit of hell from whence they came.
Now they threaten her fathers' life. The same scoundrels that could even THINK of doing such a thing to such a sweet little girl.
First they should castrate them to remove them forever from the gene pool, then annihilate them.
I am opposed to the death penalty. I am opposed to war. But I am more opposed to the Taliban. Confirmed Taliban should be shot on sight.
Extremism, of any stripe, is never good.
well then you arent opposed to the death penalty then are you?
Taliban doesnt represent islam. There are tons of muslims - yes even men - that want to get rid of the taliban. But when the taliban are the ones with the guns, it's safer to just lay low and keep your mouth shut. Only a few have the courage to stand up to them but we all know how that usually ends up. So please quit labeling every muslim as a militant or woman hater. Those types of muslims are in the minority but have more forced influence and it doesnt suprise me if some weak mideast governments give in to them on occasion. They're afraid!
Her activism has been encouraged by her father - he encouraged her to write the blog. She wanted to be an educator, but he encouraged her to become a politician. She's not an adult, and by our standards her brain is not mature enough to make important decisions. I would like an adult fighting the cause, not a child. I find the father's encouragement of her activism child abuse. If he wants to stand up to the Taliban, that's his decision, but I don't think he should have put his daughter on the front line. Of course I support the issues she is fighting for, I just don't support putting a child in this kind of danger. Some will argue she was in danger just living in that region, but clearly she remained alive before becoming a target, and thankfully remains alive today.
Lousey shots those Taliban terrorists, huh folks?
Hell, when the UNITED SNAKES (US/Israel/NATO) go after a child, its mother and/or father with their sophisticated Predator extra-judicial killing machines firing AGM-114/117 hellfire missiles, white phosphorus, or cluster bomblets, from the hip - they never miss!
Last March a Navy seal team went out and attacked 6 kids (ages 15, 12, 8) hunting for firewood, they captured and manacled them with nylon wrist bands and then shot all of them in the back of the head (Dead men tell no tales, he-he-he-he). In another case the seal team murdered two men and their wives by mistake, so they returned later in the night and dug the bullets out of the corpses with their bayonets lest they give themselves away! Oh well.... that's the AmeriKKKan way these dayze, huh Pilgrims?
you got anything to back that up cowboy?
Yeah Cowboy, do you walk the walk?
Did I miss a link or something here. Oh I get it! I forgot that we let a lot of people out of the asylums in the 90's and they're just out there set free on society.
Hey, if you're really from Arizona - where everyone knows ignorance is a virtue, that fact is all we need to know about why you posted your BS, Pilgrim!
You mean to tell me that a bunch of grown men shot a child over abc's. Now thats gone to far. This world has just gone to craps when people start fighting against education. Yeah I know over their they do not think females should do anything. But why not. People only have a life spane of about 60 to 80 years. Why not just let everyone enjoy it. Learning is a great joy in life. Its just sad that their are so many nations of people that wants to stand in the way of others just because those hateful people can. JUst let the children learn. sigh.....
It's all about fear. Fear is a terrible thing when it's rooted in ignorance and watered with power lust.
Could we please have a worldwide effort to put the Mother F'ing Taliban out of business once and for all? Just like we did in WWII to the German Nazi's and Japanese Imperialist's. This bull@!$%# is getting old, the entire world needs to step up and let theses pieces of @!$%# know that the world will not tolerate their abuse towards fellow human beings that are just trying to live their lives. This is a f u c k i n g outrage. I hope this brave young woman survives and makes a full recovery. Punish these Taliban pieces of @!$%# to the fullest extent of the law, none of this Guantanamo Bay kangaroo court bull@!$%# like their doing with Khalid Sheik Mohamed.
In the US, Talibaggers only wish they could threaten this kind of crackdown against anyone who disagrees with them. It's true that Repugnicans succeeded in stripping foreigners of human rights, as shown by the many "enemy combatants" held without trial or charge in the US. However, US citizens can feel relatively safe... for now.
Dear CIA, MAFIA and all you other covert change makers,
Please gather your very best assassins and take this Mutherfrakker OUT: Maulana Fazlullah.
You stupid Fazlullah, you want a Fatwa, Here's a Fatwa for ya, you're a dead man.
and as icing on the cake make them female. We all know you have them.
Get it done.
I want nothing else for Xmas forever.
And a little child shall lead them. This little girl with her stength of conviction and candor is truly a credit to the human race. I don't see any hope for the ones who would do her harm. My hope is that we all stand up and speak out against the ones who have sought her life. They are simply dispicable and not worthy to live on planet earth and Heaven has no place for them.
"But protests against the shooting have been relatively small until now, usually attracting no more than a few hundred people.
That response pales in comparison to the tens of thousands of people who held violent protests in Pakistan last month against a film produced in the United States that denigrated Islam's Prophet Muhammad."
Think what you will, but despite all their pride-wounded exclamations of sacrilege to their religion, the above statement illustrates very clearly that there are neglible examples of religious compassion from the Muslim mindset with regards to the victims of the violence, it also illustrates the true color of the "peaceful" Muslim population when it comes to not only not confronting the violent extremist representing them but actually tolerating or condoning those extremists!
They seem to have no problem in accepting the violence as a response to any perceived blasphemy their religious leaders or their intolerant religion deems as an insult to their religion or deity. Noone but the Muslims themselves will be able to control the Taliban - and they seem suspiciously uninclined to eliminate the rabid sub-culture among them that by their every act of senseless violence, continues to draw more concerted voices of scorn of their religious hypocricy.
Demanding education is a heroic thing to do. This girl is a hero.
Christians want to impress me, pay for a squad of recently retired Seals and/or Green Berets to be her body guards for a couple years.
This story has touched my heart personally. I am an American teacher in California and recently took a kindergarten position in a private Islamic school. Even though this is not my faith I happliy accepted the opportunity to teach these wonderful kids and the children and their families have gladly welcomed me into the educational community. I understand in a very real way how incredibly brave Malala is. What has happened to her is a tremendous tradgedy and I would very much liketo share her story with my school and have the students send there best wishes to her. If NBC or anyone else on this post has the information I need to be able to send her letters/artwork from our students I would be very much appreciative. Thank You!
The Taliban should be subject to systematic extermination.
Once again the horrible christian west helps.Let's help ourselves to no more muslims from anywhere