Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousufzai to receive titanium skull Malala was released from hospital earlier this month to continue her recuperation at the family's temporary home in the Midlands with her father, Ziauddin, mother, Toorpekai, and younger brothers, Khushal and Atul. She was shot in the Northern Pakistan district of Swat. The bullet struck her around the left eyebrow, traveled underneath her skin down the side of her head and hit her in the shoulder. Remarkably it did not penetrate the skull, although it shattered the thinnest bone of the skull and damaged the soft tissue at the base of her jaw and neck. Dr Dave Rosser, medical director at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, said: "Her recovery is remarkable and it's a testament to her strength and desire to get better." He added her full recovery is likely to take another 15 to 18 months. Dr Rosser said the missing part of Malala's skull had been put in her abdomen by surgeons in Pakistan to "keep the bone alive" However, he said that they had chosen to use a metal plate to repair her skull instead of the bone in her abdomen because it might now have shrunk. He added: "Putting a titanium plate that is custom made to be put over the left hand side of her scull to offer physical protection to her brain in the way her skull would be." Malala came to prominence when, as an 11-year-old, she wrote an online diary for the BBC, giving an account of how her school in Mingora town dealt with the Taliban's 2009 edict to close girls' schools. In 2011 she won a national peace award for her campaigning, and thousands of people have signed a petition calling for her to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. The Pakistan government has since given Malala's father a job in the UK. He has been appointed the education attaché at the Consulate of Pakistan.