Child with enormous head receives operation to relieve swelling; Dawa Titung had a head roughly 10 inches larger than average

Surgeons at Johns Hopkins performed the risky procedure earlier this month

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BY NINA MANDELL / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

FRIDAY, JUNE 1, 2012, 12:51 PM

Now here is a story of change and hope, another child with  hydrocephalus, thank you Jesus for the Doctors and Hospital personnel who operated and changed a life for the better. 

COURTESY OF JOHNS HOPKINS CHILDR

Dawa Titung was born with hydrocephalus, which caused his head to swell

A rare surgery is giving one child hope for the future.

Dawa Titung had a head roughly 10 inches larger than the average head size for a child, making it impossible for him to hold his head up, Johns Hopkins Children Center confirmed in an email.

The story was first reported by ABCNews.com.

“His head was very big. It was very hard to take care of Dawa,” his mother, Phool Titung, told ABC.

Doctors on a missionary visit to the 7-year-old’s remote region in Nepal and diagnosed him with hydrocephalus, a potentially fatal disorder when excess fluid increases the size of the ventricles and puts pressure on the brain, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Dawa’s parents took the little boy to Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore, where doctors said they had never seen a head as large as Dawa’s and faced extreme risks treating his condition, ABC reported.

“He had what surgeons at Hopkins say is one of the largest heads ever to be operated on,” the hospital said.

To avoid cutting through blood vessels in the skull that pump into the brain, surgeons made a computer model of Dawa’s head to plan how they would do the delicate operation.

Miraculously, the 12-hour surgery was a success.

“The team knew precisely where to cut the skill, what areas to trim and how to put it back together before replacing it to re-cover his brain,” the hospital said.

Dawa was released after two weeks in the hospital and is recovering, though he will continue to struggle with developmental delays, ABC reported.

However, his mother said caring for Dawa is no longer as difficult as it was before the surgery.

“Now it’s very easy to lift him, carry him from one place to another,” she said. “I am very thankful.