Two-year-old Edmonton boy Maddox Flynn, who captured the hearts of many Canadians, is recovering in a New York hospital on Friday after a complicated but successful surgery for a rare facial deformity.

Maddox suffered from a lymphatic malformation on his face that caused a massive cyst of fluid to build up over his left eye. The surgery required to fix it was complex and there was no one available in Canada who can perform the procedure.

Maddox had gone with his father Mike to New York, where a surgical team at the Vascular Birthmark Institute of New York, led by Dr. Milton Waner, performed the operation.

Doctors said the growth has been removed, and family members in Edmonton told CTV News Channel Friday afternoon that Maddox's parents are happy "beyond words" with the result.

"For the first time my brother was able to see (Maddox's) eyelid, and his eyelashes," said Kelly Flynn-Pardo, Maddox's aunt.

"Words can't express how (the parents) feel right now," said another aunt, Jamie Greene. When asked how Maddox's mother reacted to the news, Greene replied: "'We did it, thank you God, we did it'."

Earlier, Dr. Waner said that the condition Maddox was born with -- lymphatic cystic hygroma -- is a form of birthmark that affects his lymph system, the network of vessels that return excess fluid from tissues back into the veins.

"With a lymphatic malformation, these vessels don't work so well, so the flow of lymph across these vessels is slowed down so you get a back-up of fluid," he explained to CTV's Canada AM Friday.

"So the fluid backs up, it swells the tissue, eventually some scar tissue sets in and it turns into a very hard mass, which is pretty much what the patient has at this point."

Maddox underwent two surgeries. The first focused on the lymphatic malformation in his eye socket, which itself is very delicate, Waner detailed.

The second surgery worked on the malformation on his cheek, which is interspersed with the facial nerve, which controls all the muscles of the face.

"So in order to separate that from the nerve and preserve the nerve so that he can still smile and be a normal child, (it) will take about eight to nine hours," Waner explained.

As for whether Maddox will eventually be able to see out of his left eye, Waner says that remains to be seen.

"His eye has actually been shut since probably the first month or two of his life, so we're not exactly sure how much serviceable vision there'll be. We know that once we get the eye functioning again and once we get the eye open, some vision may return."

Maddox's surgery will cost US$50,000, along with travel and recovery bills. But all of that has been covered by generous donations from the public: as of Wednesday, the family has received $175,000 in donations, most of that in the last week alone.

The family has been stunned and delighted by the many small donations made by ordinary people who have been touched by Maddox's plight.

"I don't think a ‘thank you' is big enough for what everyone has done," said Greene.

"It's beyond anything we imagined," added Flynn-Pardo.

Other donations have come from businesses and organizations wanting to help. And then on Thursday, Edmonton Oilers player Gilbert Brule announced he would be adding $10,000 to the growing fund.

"Our whole team is rooting for Maddox and his family as they show courage during this challenging time," Brule said in a news release.

Now that the donations have exceeded the expectations of the family, they have consulted a lawyer who is handling a trust fund. The family wants to donate any leftover funds to the Stollery Children's Hospital in Edmonton and the clinic where Maddox is having his surgery, Vascular Birthmark Institute of New York (VBINY) at Roosevelt Hospital and Beth Israel Medical Center.

Friday's surgery will not be the end of the ordeal for Maddox. Assuming everything goes well, he will have to go back for a second surgery in September, which will reconstruct the lower part of his face.

While the surgeries will be taxing for Maddox and his family, Waner suggests the alternative is worse.

"If left untreated, unfortunately, this mass will get bigger and bigger, so that as he gets older, the degree of disfigurement will actually increase," he said.