CHAPEL HILL Baby Adam, a 2-1/2-month-old boy from India with severe birth defects, was doing well Tuesday night after undergoing the first set of several reconstructive surgeries at UNC Hospitals, his mother reported.

Doctors completed more than eight hours of surgery in stages, Jessica Paulraj wrote on the family’s website. They reported finding no abnormalities inside Adam’s tiny body, although his urinary and gastrointestinal tracts lie close enough to risk serous infection. They also realized his urinary system functions correctly after Adam urinated on the operating room table, Paulraj said.

Once his colostomy was complete, doctors inserted a tube to make feeding him easier and created new eyelids using skin grafts.

Adam was close to suffering severe damage to his cornea, because his eyes had been open for 10 weeks, Paulraj said. His parents have put drops in his eyes daily since he was born to keep them from drying out.

Adam’s eyes have been sutured closed and will remain that way for a few days to give them time to recover, Paulraj said. Although he has strong eye-opening muscles, he will still need to build strong eye-closing muscles, she said.

The surgeries went as scheduled Tuesday after more than $100,000 was donated in less than a week to pay the cost of medicines, recovery and other surgical expenses. A 15-member team of UNC surgeons and doctors are volunteering their time and skills to help the baby.

Adam was born Sept. 18 with an extremely rare autosomal recessive disorder, called Bartsocas-Papas Syndrome, which can cause multiple birth defects and is usually fatal. While his brain and other organs are normal, Adam has severe physical deformities, including a partially developed nose and eyelids, a severe cleft lip and palate, and fusing of his hands, feet and legs.

Jessica and her husband, Raja Paulraj, adopted Adam in November just weeks after he was born at the rural mission hospital they served in northeastern India. It was while they were trying to find help for Adam that a friend introduced them to UNC pediatric plastic surgeon John van Aalst and they arranged to come to Chapel Hill.

With this first set of surgeries behind them, Adam’s family is focused on his recovery. Once his condition stabilizes, UNC doctors will evaluate his case and start planning for additional surgeries, some of which won’t be possible until he is a little older.

In an online update Monday to the family’s website – www.babyadamsjourney.com – Jessica Paulraj thanked the many donors who gave to the Baby Adam Fund, operated by the Medical Foundation of North Carolina, and God, who “moved mountains.”

“Many of you have given out of precious hearts and small pockets,” she wrote. “Many of you have needs I do not even know about, yet you give. And that is beautiful. Thank you.”