Malala, 15, had surgery on Saturday at a Birmingham hospital to fit a titanium plate over her damaged skull.

BBC: Shot Malala Yousafzai 'now recovering well'

Doctors in Birmingham have chosen to use a metal plate to repair her skull instead of that bone, which they say may have shrunk.

BBC: Malala Yousafzai

If you're nice enough, Scott Blum will let you rub the subcutaneous plastic plate that covers a crack in his skull, a souvenir from a triathlon accident.

FORBES: The Death and Life of Buy.com

Last week doctors said they would use a titanium plate to cover an opening in her skull, and give her a cochlear implant to partially restore hearing in her left ear.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

This is the same kind of plate that surgeons used in repairing Giffords' skull after she was shot in the head in January, said Polonski, who also treated Giffords.

CNN: Man's eye saved after impalement

The plate was necessary to replace a section of her skull about the size of a hand, which doctors removed to relieve swelling after the shooting.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

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.

CNN: STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Part of her skull will need to be reconstructed either by reinserting bone that was removed or with a titanium plate.

BBC: Malala Yousafzai's family arrives to visit UK hospital