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SCHENECTADY -- Many things make Mohammad Karimi happy. For starters, he loves cartoons, pizza and dodgeball.

But the 11-year-old boy also was happy to get a nostril, a nose and an eye socket.

In some ways, this kid is so normal. In others, he is miracle.

Mohammad was born in Iran with a rare facial deformity. He almost died at birth because he had no nostrils and nearly suffocated. He also was missing an eye, and part of his brain was pushing out the back of his head.

He survived, and his parents have since fought to give him a normal life, though most children with deformities in Iran are hidden in their homes, said his mother, Laila Ahmadi.