Three months and two brain surgeries after being brutally beaten, a Bronx street vendor is talking about the attack and his recovery.

Talk to Souleymane Porgo, and it's hard to imagine why anyone would want to hurt the 48-year-old vendor. He's a soft-spoken man who smiles a lot and genuinely enjoyed his job selling handbags, books and other goods at 149th Street and Third Avenue, known as the HUB in the Bronx.

"The community does a lot of business for me. They support me a lot," Porgo said.

That joy was stolen in May when six men beat Porgo, an African immigrant, unconscious after he confronted one of them about trying to steal a handbag from his display.

The attack was caught on cellphone video and witnessed by Porgo's young daughters and their mother, who asked that we hide her identity.

"It was my 2-year-old's birthday," she said. "I didn't know what to do. I had my babies and my daughter was just crying, 'They killed my daddy.'"

Doctors operated on Porgo for five hours, removing a piece of his fractured skull to ease the pressure caused by his brain swelling. Surgeons temporarily stored that skull fragment in his abdomen so it could be reattached later.

They placed him in a coma for two weeks and his prognosis was uncertain, but Porgo pulled through.

Weeks of painful recovery with his jaw wired shut, and another brain surgery, followed.

But Porgo now looks back on it all and laughs.

"Oh my God, three hours a day, therapy, therapy, therapy," he said.

Today, Porgo is walking and talking like before with no visible effects of the beating. 

He kept the helmets he wore to protect his head after the surgery, a reminder of what he has overcome. 

On Wednesday, another milestone: Doctors removed the staples in his head and stomach.

His outlook is positive.

"Life's good. I'm still alive," he said.

Porgo intends to return to street vending, but not to 149th Street and Third Avenue. He doesn't want the attention..

As for what Porgo would say to his attackers?

"They got them in the court. That's it," he said. "Don't pay mind about this one no more. Forgive them."

Six men have been charged with gang assault in the attack. If convicted, they could face up to 25 years in prison.