BOSTON -- It was a tumor so big that doctors in his native Jordan gave him no hope, but Fadi Marto is a fighter, and when he came to Boston for treatment, doctors here did the unbelievable.

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Heather Unruh Reports On Patient

NewsCenter 5's Heather Unruh reported that Fadi may walk a little funny, but otherwise, he's a normal 11-year-old. It's unbelievable, considering the tumor that consumed his brain at the age of 3.

"It was really grim, really grim, and I felt that we would, God forbid, lose him," Fadi's father, Souheil Marto, said.

In 1996, his family flew him 7,000 miles from their home in Jordan to Boston and Children's Hospital. By the time he arrived, he was paralyzed from the waist down, and his sight was drifting away.

"Almost the entire region of the back of the brain was completely filled with tumor," Boston Children's Hospital Dr. Edward Smith said.

The tumor had spread through Fadi's spinal cord. Doctors rushed him into surgery, followed by 33 doses of radiation.

"His chance for long-term survival was negligible, and no one thought that he would have any significant chance for survival," Smith said.

But today, Fadi has beaten the odds. He returned last week to Children's for cataract surgery -- a side effect of the radiation he had as a toddler.

"He will retain his vision. His mother says he's already watching TV and enjoying it more than before, and when he goes back to school, hopefully his school work will improve, too," Boston Children's Hospital Dr. Deborah Vandenveen said.

"I believe in God. I believe in miracles and I believe this is what happened to us," Fadi's mother, Abeer Marto, said.

As for Fadi, he has a simple message for the doctors who saved him.

"I will say, thank you very much," he said.

Fadi will be going back to Jordan Saturday where he likes to swim and play soccer. His classmates call him Fadi the Fighter.