New Delhi: Roona Begum, an 15 month old baby from tripura, born with a rare disorder, underwent a life saving surgery which lasted for more than an hour, in an hospital on the outskirts of delhi successfully.The girls parents, who have spent the last month at the hospital, spoke of their joy and relief after the operation which doctors described as exemplary.

“The surgery went perfectly, much better than expected,” neurosurgeon Sandeep Vaishya said in an exclusive interview with AFP inside the theatre.”Its definitely a success but its too early to say what the quality of her future life will be like,” Dr Vaishya added.

Roona was born with hydrocephalus, a condition that causes cerebrospinal fluid to build up on the brain.Publication of her pictures prompted the hospital, run by the private Fortis Healthcare group on the outskirts of Delhi, to offer to treat Roona for free.

When Roona was born, local doctors told her parents to take her to a private hospital in a big city but the costs were too high for her 18-year-old father, Abdul Rahman, an illiterate labourer who earns Rs 150 a day. Roonas condition had caused her head to swell to a circumference of 94 cm (37 inches), putting pressure on her brain and making it impossible for her to sit upright or crawl. Vaishya estimated the weight of the fluid in her head amounted to half her total weight, leading him to believe that her body would struggle to absorb all that liquid in the event of a procedure known as a shunt, where a tube is inserted into the head.