A 13-year-old schoolgirl rushed overseas after she suffered a severe bleed on her brain is battling back to health, her family said yesterday.

Shawnette Bell, Unaiah Ball’s aunt, said that the bleeding had stopped and the schoolgirl was now conscious and in a stable condition.

The Whitney Institute Middle School pupil, who still has problems with her speech, told The Royal Gazette: “I’m doing better. I’m keeping busy.”

Unaiah thanked everyone who had donated to a special fund to help pay for her treatment at Boston Children’s Hospital — and that she looked forward to coming home.

She said: “I miss you guys. I can’t wait to come back.”

Unaiah, who was flown to Boston by an air ambulance on July 5 after she suffered a severe headache and collapsed, has undergone intensive physiotherapy and speech therapy since she had two operations at the specialist hospital.

Ms Bell said Unaiah was now able to speak, write and move on her own. She added: “It’s only been three weeks this week and she has made tremendous progress.

“She just came back from her CT scan and if the doctors don’t see anything, she’ll be moved to the general ward.”

Ms Bell said: “She’s doing an awesome job brushing her own teeth; she’s using the bedpan and talking a lot more, even though her voice is hoarse. She’s even dancing in her bed.”

Unaiah is proud that she has regained the ability to sit upright on her own and stand up with the help of nurses.

She said that the nurses had helped motivate her.

Unaiah said: “The nurses are nice.”

Undreah Castle, Unaiah’s mother, who is at her daughter’s bedside, said that Unaiah still had difficulty swallowing.

She added that Unaiah might also need surgery to drain fluid from her lungs.

But Ms Castle said: “She’s happy, she’s smiling, she’s been laughing and cracking a few jokes.

“She had a drain at the top of her head to drain spinal fluid and this morning I had mentioned to her ‘you have a little shaved patch to the front of her head’.

“Her response was ‘Oh no, not my hairline’.”

Unaiah became ill earlier this month.

Ms Bell said: “Her mom told me that Unaiah had a headache after eating breakfast, so she took an aspirin and laid down.

“Then all of a sudden she just started screaming.”

She added: “She said that she had a pain going from her neck up to her head, so her granny put everyone in the car and got them to the hospital. On the way to the hospital she started throwing up and by the time they reached the hospital she said she was weak.

“Her mom went inside to get a wheelchair to wheel her into the emergency room, but by the time she had come back she had already passed out.”

Ms Bell said that Unaiah was given a CT scan as soon as she arrived at the Boston hospital.

Doctors discovered that Unaiah was born with a tangle of blood vessels in her brain which had burst and caused an aneurysm. They performed the two emergency operations.

But Ms Bell said that doctors would not be able to operate to untangle the blood vessels until bleeding in Unaiah’s brain eased off, which could take up to six weeks.

The proceeds of Unaiah’s GoFundMe page will be used to reimburse the Lady Cubitt Compassionate Association, which has agreed to cover the medical expenses. The page has raised $36,190 of its $50,000 goal.

Ms Bell, who runs the GoFundMe page, said that she hoped to reach the target before it closed at the end of this month.

But she added that more money might be needed to help pay for further expenses.

Ms Bell said: “We’re not sure exactly how much her rehabilitation’s going to cost or if she’s got to fly back out, so if it has to be raised then it has to be raised.

“But the support is definitely out there for her to get better, so from mom, dad and the family we would like to thank everybody.”

Donations to the GoFundMe page can be made at gofundme.com/f/unaiah-medical-expenses