Last time we checked on the progress of Malala Yousafzai, the 14-year-old Pakistani girl who was targeted and shot in the head by the Taliban, doctors were hopeful for a good recovery. The Birmingham hospital where she was transferred reported Malala is now "able to stand with some help and to write."
The first photographs out of Queen Elizabeth Hospital show Malala in bed with her eyes open, clutching a white teddy bear.
Malala is not out of the woods yet. Hospital medical director Dr. Dave Rosser said her bullet wound has become infected. But she is "well enough that she's agreed that she's happy, in fact keen, for us to share more clinical detail," he said.
CBS News reports:
"[Malala] has some memory as to what happened, and remembers she was in Pakistan on a school bus one moment, and then, in the next, woke up in a foreign country. One of the first things she asked when she came out of her medically-induced coma Tuesday ... was what country she was in."
For a more in depth report on her status, the hospital detailed her current condition on their site. As of Friday, it reads:
- She is not on a ventilator; she has had a trachiostomy and is breathing through the tube in her neck
- Can’t talk because of tube in throat but can communicate through writing
- Understandably gets tired very easily
- Aware of surroundings
- Impact of brain injury, not been able to do full evaluation because brain is still swollen
- She has movement of her arms and legs
- She has stood with assistance from nurses
- She is currently fighting an infection
We'll keep you updated as Malala's condition develops.