Toddler With Swollen Head Desperately Needs Surgery

"I do not know why God is punishing us."

A 14-month-old girl whose head has swollen far beyond its normal size could be getting the help she desperately needs.

A GoFundMe page created by Caters News agency had raised more than $16,000 by Monday for Dhabuhi Parmar. She suffers from hydrocephalus, which causes fluid to pool in the skull, according to the site.

Heartbreaking images of a bedridden Dhabuhi have rapidly circulated.

The weight of her head renders her unable to sit up, and she needs surgery to insert a shunt that helps drain the cerebrospinal fluid to other parts of the body, the GoFundMe page notes. She lives in a remote village in Gujarat, India, and her family is too poor to afford medical care.

"I do not know why God is punishing us," her mother, Shakuntala Parmar, said, per the Mirror.

But there is hope. "This condition is common among children and a patient, if operated at the right time, can be saved," Dr. Vineet Bhushan, a pediatric neurologist in New Delhi, said on the GoFundMe page. The doctor estimated the surgery could cost as much as $15,000.

In 2013, another girl from India with hydrocephalus tugged at hearts worldwide when photos of her went viral. Roona Begum was set to undergo her eighth surgery back in August, the Hindustan Times reported.

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