Roona Begum, a 15-month-old Indian child who drew international concern last month when photos of her dangerously swollen head surfaced, was successfully treated with life-saving hydrocephalus shunt surgery this morning, reported the Agence France-Presse (AFP).

Baby Roona was born with a rare neurological disorder called hydrocephaly, which caused her head to swell to a circumference of 38 inches before the surgery-almost double its normal size.

Neurosurgeon Sandeep Vaishya estimated that Roona’s swollen head weighed about half of her total weight before she was treated, he told the news agency, and the fluid buildup in her brain was so great that she was unable to lift her head or move on her own.

Luckily, today’s treatment seems to have been successful.h-a-n-h

“The surgery went perfectly, much better than expected,” Vaishya announced in an exclusive interview with AFP earlier today.

Roona’s treatment was possible because of the kindness of strangers. Her parents, a young couple from the village of Jirania Khola in northeast India’s Tripura state, were too poor to afford necessary care for their debilitated daughter as her condition worsened.h-a-n-h

Her father, 18-year-old Abdul Rahman, is an illiterate laborer who earns only about $2.75 a day at a brickmaking factory. The complex hydrocephalus shunt surgery that could help her, however, cost about $2,300.

Rahman told AFP that “the doctor said there were no guarantees she would survive” after she was born. “I figured we would do our best for as long as we could and Allah would help us with the rest.”h-a-n-h

After AFP published pictures of her in April, however, the family received a windfall. With the aid of donations, the private Fortis flagship hospital in Gurgaon, outside New Delhi, offered Roona’s parents free treatment.