( CNN ) -- Malala Yousafzai was glad to hear that her long ordeal of surgeries will soon be over . Just two more to go , doctors in Britain say . Hopefully . She will receive a titanium plate in the coming days , to cover an opening in her skull , and an inner ear implant . Read more : Malala 's journey from near death to recovery . A gunman shot the teenage activist in the head and neck in October as she rode home from school in Pakistan 's Swat Valley . Islamist extremists from Tehrik-e-Taliban intended to kill her for taking a stand for the right of girls to get an education . The terrorists have said they will target her again . Read more : Malala , others on front lines in fight for women . The 15-year-old 's brain swelled dangerously days after the shooting , so doctors in Pakistan extracted a section of her skull about the size of a hand . Otherwise , the pressure in her cranium would have caused severe brain damage , likely killing her . `` There is no doubt that the surgery performed in Pakistan was life-saving , '' Dr. Dave Rosser , medical director of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham , UK , said Wednesday at a news conference . Malala has made impressive strides and faced her medical treatment with bravery , Rosser said . `` She 's very lively . She 's got a great sense of humor , '' he said . She is aware of her high profile in the world and what that could mean for her safety . `` She remains incredibly cheerful , incredibly determined and incredibly determined to speak for her cause , '' Rosser said . Photos : Malala and the women of Pakistan . With the patch of skull missing , Malala is limited in what she can do . Her brain is vulnerable to injury , if she bumps her head in the wrong way . Only her skin and soft cranial tissues stand between the outside world and her brain , and that 's not enough . Doctors could have covered the breach with the original piece of her skull , which she has carried under her skin since October , where a surgeon in Pakistan implanted it for safe keeping . That 's a common procedure to preserve bone fragments for later use , Rosser said . Girls + education : Your story . But her own skull section would have no longer fit properly without the addition of some titanium parts , as her head and the bone fragment have changed . Titanium also has a low incidence of infection and can be handcrafted to near perfection , doctors told her . `` It was Malala 's final decision , '' Rosser said . She picked the titanium plate . She will also receive a cochlear implant to restore hearing to her left ear , in which she is currently deaf . The gunfire broke the delicate bones that help turn sound into sensory impulses to the brain . The device will not allow her to hear completely naturally but will restore enough function to the damaged ear to allow her to hear in three dimensions , which is important for safety . It will allow her , for example , to hear an approaching car , Rosser said . Watch 'Girl Rising ' : 9 girls ' quest for education . Malala also recently had surgery to reroute a facial nerve that was damaged in the attempt on her life , leaving part the left side of her mouth listless . `` There is a very good chance after this procedure that within a year to 18 months , this will completely recover , '' Rosser said . She will then hopefully regain her old smile . To make the titanium plate , prosthesis maker Stefan Edmondson had the section of Malala 's skull with the gap in it reproduced by an object printer . Then he patched the hole with wax and carved it to fit the shape of her head , Edmondson said , and he used the wax section to give the titanium its form . As for the skull fragment she has carried inside her since that emergency surgery in Pakistan : . `` The bone will be removed from under the skin in her stomach and cleaned up and sterilized and given to Malala , '' Rosser said . She wants to keep it as a remembrance .
Malala chose the titanium over her own bone fragment . Doctors in Pakistan had removed the fragment to save her life , when her brain swelled . She was rushed into a coma and died shortly after. Malala has a great sense of humor . The Pakistani Taliban tried to kill her for standing up for girls ' right to an education .