As 4-year-old Deaglan Carney lay on a hospital gurney — just moments before doctors would begin an intricate and risky operation to remove a tumor from the little East Aurora boy’s brain— his parents had one message for him: “Fight like crazy. This is the fight of your life.”

Then Deaglan was wheeled away, and his parents, Ed and Audra Carney, along with the Rev. Joseph Moreno of St. Lawrence Catholic Church in Buffalo, a good friend of Audra Carney, began the excruciating, hours-long wait to find out if the doctors could perform what they believed would be a miracle.

In April, Deaglan was diagnosed in Women & Children’s Hospital with a craniopharyngioma, a relatively rare brain tumor that afflicts children and adults over 50. The tumor develops around or near the pituitary gland and can affect functions ranging from hormones to vision.

Deaglan underwent one round of surgery at Children’s to drain the tumor, but it became clear that he would need more extensive surgery to try to remove all, or at least part, of the tumor.

The parents decided to take their son to New York University Medical Center in New York City for the surgery.

The boy’s fight was featured in The Buffalo News two months ago. In recent weeks, News readers have sent more than 2,000 get-well cards to the boy — through St. LawrenceChurch— to cheer him up.

Early Tuesday, Moreno toted a giant box stuffed with about half the cards (he couldn’t carry more) to Buffalo Niagara International Airport in Cheektowaga so he could deliver them to Deaglan. The box was decorated with a photo of Deaglan and a message that read: “Deck, you’ve got mail from Buffalo.”

“When I walked through the airport, people recognized the photo [from the newspaper],” Moreno said. “One lady stopped and got a card and put it on the outside of the box.”

When he got on his JetBlue flight, the crew and passengers happily made room for the box. By the time the priest arrived at NYU Medical Center, Deaglan was already under anesthesia.

But his mother had told him about the cards. “He can’t wait to open all his cards,” Audra Carney told Moreno.

For four long hours Tuesday, the parents and priest sat quietly in the waiting room.

“We were doing OK,” Audra Carney told The News in a telephone interview. “But as we knew it was coming on that hour that we should be hearing something, both of us looked at each other.”

Audra Carney, an accountant with Praxair, and Ed Carney, a Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority police officer, both felt qualms in the pit of their stomachs.

Then shortly after 3 p. m., Deaglan’s surgeon came out. He was smiling.

“It was absolutely priceless,” Audra Carney said.

The doctor said that his team managed to get the entire tumor out and there was no indication that any damage had been done to the boy’s brain.

“It’s wonderful. It’s so wonderful,” Audra Carney said just after the surgery. “Now I can’t wait to get my arms around him and give him a kiss.”

Tuesday night, Deaglan woke up briefly, and his family gently joked with him about the massive pile of bandages on his head, which they called his “pope hat.”

Wednesday, he was much more alert and was up and moving around, Moreno said the Carneys told him. He had an MRI that confirmed the operation was a success.

The boy still has a long road to full recovery, but doctors say he could go home in as little as two to three weeks. In the meantime, friends and family are planning a benefit for Nov. 8 to help the Carneys cover the costs of their stay in New York, co-pays and other expenses.

“I want to thank the community for all their support and prayers,” Audra Carney said.