Tiny Hamdia lost half of her big toe from the gunshot wound but made a full recovery within ten days.

Amazingly, her mother was also discharged and transferred to an Afghan hospital after surgeons removed shrapnel from her abdomen, saving the unborn baby’s life as a result.

Nurse, Sandra Jordan, aged 31, from Kings Heath added: “Having Hamdia on the ward was a light relief for everyone.

“We are used to men and women coming in with serious battle wounds.

“Hamdia brought a bit of sparkle to the ward and by the end she had us all wrapped round her little finger.

“She was as quiet as a mouse when she first arrived but by the end she was ever so confident and we were even able to witness her take her first footsteps.”

British soldiers treat all casualties on the battlefield including civilians, the Afghan National Army and the Taliban.

Medical Emergency Response Teams, who are constantly on call, evacuated Hamdia and her parents from the battlefield by helicopter.

An ambulance picked the trio up from a helipad just a few hundred metres from the hospital before doctors evaluated their wounds.

Both Hamdia and her mother were immeditely rushed into theatre where they were operated on by two teams of medics working just a few metres apart.

Hamdia’s mother was kept in intensive care for treatment after her operation before being reunited with her daughter.

Corporal Rebecca Warren, also from the West Midlands, said: “It’s nice to have a child on the ward because it brightens everyone up a bit and changes the atmosphere of the place.

“It is very starnge to see big burly soldiers being treated right next to a tiny little girl.

“But as nice as it was having her here we don’t want to see anymore children in the hospital. They are innocent victims in a war like this.”

* See more reports from Paul Bradley and the Kings Heath Field Hospital in the Birmingham Mail later this week.