Malala Yousufzai was discharged from Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham (QEHB) as an inpatient yesterday (3 January 2012) to continue her rehabilitation at her family’s temporary home in the West Midlands.

The 15-year-old, who was shot by the Taliban for campaigning for girls’ education, is well enough to be treated by the hospital as an outpatient for the next few weeks.

She is still due to be re-admitted in late January or early February to undergo cranial reconstructive surgery as part of her long-term recovery and in the meantime she will visit the hospital regularly to attend clinical appointments.

Dr Dave Rosser, Medical Director at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Malala is a strong young woman and has worked hard with the people caring for her to make excellent progress in her recovery.

“Following discussions with Malala and her medical team, we decided that she would benefit from being at home with her parents and two brothers.

“She will return to the hospital as an outpatient and our Therapies team will continue to work with her at home to supervise her onward care.”

Over the past couple of weeks Malala has been leaving the hospital on a regular basis on "home leave" to spend time with her father Ziauddin, mother Toorpekai and younger brothers, Khushal and Atul. During those visits assessments have been carried out by her medical team to ensure she can continue to make good progress outside the hospital.

Malala was admitted to QEHB on Monday 15 October after being flown from Pakistan where she was wounded in a school bus shooting on 9 October.

A number of QEHB’s multi-specialist doctors have been working alongside colleagues from Birmingham Children’s Hospital to treat her. The medical team has included clinicians from Neurosurgery, Imaging, Trauma and Therapies.