Pakistan schoolgirl Malala Yousufzai is recovering well at Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (QEHB) after undergoing two operations to repair her skull and help restore her hearing.

The 15-year-old schoolgirl, who was shot at point blank range last October, underwent a titanium cranioplasty, which involved repairing the missing area of her skull with a specially moulded titanium plate.

Malala then had a cochlear implant fitted - a small, complex electronic device that provides a sense of sound to someone who is profoundly deaf or severely hard of hearing.

The cochlear implant is to restore hearing to her left ear after she was left deaf in that ear by the bullet.

Details of the two operations, which together took around five hours, were unveiled at a press conference on 4 February 2013, attended by the Trust’s Medical Director Dr Dave Rosser and Consultant Neurosurgeon Mrs Anwen White, who led the reconstructive surgery.

Mrs White, who was on call on the day that Malala was originally admitted, said: “Malala is doing very well and, hopefully, she will be discharged very soon.

“She was very keen to have the titanium plate put in so she could continue her recovery. She remains a very happy, focused and enthusiastic young woman.”

Mrs White said there had been no complications during the procedure, which involved fitting the titanium plate to her skull with eight screws.

Dr Rosser said of the operations: “Everything went very well. Malala went back to intensive care, mainly as a precautionary measure, but is now back on one of the wards and doing very well.”

He added that just 24 hours after coming round from the operations Malala was continuing to talk about helping others.

Following her operations Malala said: “I am feeling alright and I am happy that both operations were successful. It doesn’t seem that I had a very big operation.

“I think I will get better very soon and there will be no problems.”

She said her “mission” remained the same, which was to help people.