Until recently, little Yahya El Jabaly was the ‘boy with no face.’
The four-year-old Moroccan boy’s facial bones didn’t fuse properly the womb, so he was born without eyes, a nose or a a functioning mouth.
He has never been able to speak or see, and couldn’tenter the local village, except when wrapped in a blanket by his parents, due to the risk of infection.
But despite all the odds, Yahya now has a face after undergoing an 18-hour operation in Melbourne.
A team of surgeons, some working for free, worked in shift rotation to remodel the bones on little Yahya’s face at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital.
The procedure took about 10 hours longer than predicted and Yahya lost nearly half his blood during the surgery, which was funded partly by donations.
But the end result — revealed on last night’s Sunday Night program on Channel Seven — was all worth it, with Yahya’s relieved parents cried tears of joy on seeing the changes.
“It’s a huge joy, a huge happiness to see my son in such a situation,” Yahya’s father Mostafa told Sunday Night.
“It’s quite remarkable to witness this team of surgeons, they basically reconstructed his face, they broke every bone they could and put it back together in the right spot,” Dr Andrew Rochford said.
“It’s completely transformed him in every way,” Dr Rochford said. “It’s something to behold.”
Just weeks after the surgery, Yahya’s face was already healing and the little boy –described as a sweet, cheeky boy who’s adored by his family and his next-door neighbour friend, Heba — was smiling and humming. There’s also a chance he will be able to speak in future, due to his vocal chords remaining intact.
“The risks of the operation were great but I think they were worth it so that he could have a decent life,” said lead surgeon Professor Dr Tony Holmes, the same Melbourne reconstructive surgeon who operated to separate conjoined twins Trishna and Krishna.
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