A face for Yahya: the boy with no face (Part II) | 7NEWS Spotlight

a story about a lovable little boy called Yahya he was born without the very thing that immediately sets us apart that identifies us to friends and strangers a face Yaya was 3 years old when he was brought to Australia last year from a small village in Morocco in the hope that our surgeons could find a way to help him the team of brilliant doctors that successfully separated conjoined twins trishna and Krishna 6 years ago made the decision to attempt a delicate and dangerous procedure no one could be sure Yahya could survive the high-risk surgery our reporter is Dr Andrew [Music] Rochford thank you hi guys how are you you ready to go we're all anxious but looking forward to it so should be good and it's going to take quite a while you okay I'm a bit scared about it to be honest what scares you the most if he doesn't pull through [Music] 3-year-old yahia jab is about to have a lifechanging operation but there's a chance the surgery that could give him his best hope of having a normal life will also kill him twinkle tnle this is cranofacial neurosurgery at its extreme so this is like a cardiac surgeon having a a horrendous heart operation and knowing that the it was a 5050 chance but it was worth taking it because without it the person would die the problem here is that yaa may not die if we don't operate but he might if we [Music] do a kiss from you please former Melbourne home importer Fatima Baraka helped raise money to bring Yahya to Australia for the risky operation when Tony gets to do his magic okay in the hours ahead Professor Tony Holmes and his team of Surgeons at Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital will attempt one of the toughest operations ever stay this kid doesn't look human and I believe that it's the right of everybody to look human the odds are stacked against Yahya but this tough little three-year-old has been battling long odds his whole [Music] life I first met the toddler at his home in this tiny village in Morocco on the Northern tip of Africa it was a confronting encounter because Yahya was born without a face his parents kept him hidden from Outsiders but the local kids especially his neighbor hea love him she sees beyond the deformity to the sweet little boy [Music] within yahia can't see and while he can hear he can't talk but he can laugh and he loves a hug yah's deformity is severe sadly there's not a nice way of saying that just here you can see where his eyes should have formed and this hole in the middle of his face is his nose or should be his nose you can see his mouth is open and turned to the outside and just here under my fingers I can feel a pulsation because between my fingers and his brain there's no bone it's just skin and yet despite his deformity this is a beautiful very sweet three-year-old boy and you can understand just why his [Music] parents oh I was so desperate to find him help he is very much a three-year-old boy Goodness [Laughter] Me Oh you're a rockar parents Fatima and Mustafa can't access sophisticated Medical Care they had no idea yah's development in the womb was abnormal his condition came as a complete surprise do you remember when Yahya was born and what it was like the first time that you saw his face this is when uh I had a sense of joy that my first child was about to be born I was very happy when he was born my wife's doctor called me and said come see your son but he didn't inform me what he was like until I saw him local doctors couldn't help then a photo was posted on Facebook by one of the villagers there was a big phone number in in red it was quite obvious that it was a cry for help of some sort and I found myself reaching for the phone and dialing the number Fatima Baraka was born in Morocco and now lives in Melbourne she believed surgeons in Australia could help Yahya and set about raising funds and arranging the operation I can't wait to meet him I don't see a deformed child I just see this beautiful little child who's yeah he's just a he's just a beautiful little soul that's all I see Fatima traveled to Morocco to meet the family and the little boy she desperately wanted to help she was overwhelmed by what she [Music] saw Fatima had promised to help and she was good to her word a few days later she flew back to Australia with Yahya and his mom and before long he was in hospital where 3D scans revealed the extent of the deformity whole sections of his skull had failed to fuse leaving him without a nose mouth and eyes we don't know what causes it it's sporadic it's not genetic and most kids with the really severe ones probably would not survive pregnancy anyway they would spontaneously abort early on in pregnancy but some do so the fact he's reached 3 years of age with such significant deformities quite rare I think it's very rare uh uh incredibly [Music] rare and Incredibly Tony decided he could attempt the difficult and delicate surgery to repair yahya's face but there are dangers in operating the risks are that he can get leakage of fluid menitis which infection of the fluid around the brain air into the system while we're operating through the veins uh and going into his heart and and causing heart failure but his risks we feel are the same as any other large Neurosurgical procedure to be honest uh we're hoping to really get that first operation underway in the very near future very good news very exciting it is it's fantastic it's amazing he will have a human face so then he has a chance of just being a normal child who happens to be blind um and hopefully that's what will happen no one knew it at the time but yah's Mom was 3 months pregnant when she left Morocco she and her son moved in with FAA while doctors planned a series of surgeries that would be needed in the months ahead Guy where is the little man he's right here here he is on his little rocking horse hello hello mate you here hello yeah that's your rocking horse he looks good oh he's he's great he's in really good health he's a half good little boy he's a little aie now yia's first surgery is unusual because it's designed to give him more skin that will eventually be used to repair his face Tony's made incisions on each side of his scalp underneath he's going to insert expanders that will stretch the skin which he can then use at the big operation to build him a new nose [Music] over the next 6 weeks Tony injects just a few milliliters of saline at a time into the balloon likee expanders the result is this looking fantastic although these are certainly getting bigger his his little shudo horns that's amazing it's amazing how much skin you can get isn't it he's just a wonderful little fell and uh we just hope we can get the best result for it for [Music] him 3 months later the balloons have almost doubled in size enough new skin for his facial reconstruction to go ahead he's a little fighter he really has that fighter Instinct in him this is a kid whose parents were told to take him home he won't he won't live long well he's proving them wrong isn't he yeah he's he's hanging in [Music] there yahya's mom is desperately homesick and misses her husband Mustafa she's also by now heavily pregnant Fatima has told her they're at the airport to meet a friend she has no idea her husband is about to appear [Music] he's come for yah's big operation and possibly for the birth of their second [Music] child he said he's incredibly happy it's very happy times for him and um he's he's look I'm I'm I'm speechless I'm I'm just so happy for them to be together for the family everything is coming to a head yaha's surgery will happen tomorrow a new baby could happen anytime how difficult would this surgery be I think this one's a really about as difficult as it gets on the you know this is a 9 out 9.5 out of 10 degree of difficulty without any [Music] doubt it's almost 2 years since Fatima saw little Yahya on Facebook and resolved to help today Tony Holmes and his talented team are going to attempt to give him the very thing that defines us all and that we all take for granted a about the whole thing I'm very hopeful but there is that that little bit of you know what if that thought that Creeps in every now and again and I I yes I've really got to stay positive and just hope for the [Music] best thank you my friends see you throughout this journey this is the same team that successfully separated conjoined twins Krishna and trishna the operation on Yahya has its own unique challenges and risks I've been fairly firm in telling fa team of this but I think sometimes the non-medical community thinks that we can do Miracles when we we don't do Miracles you don't do Miracles no we don't do Miracles no we just do Recon construction uh and sure things have got a lot better in the last 20 or 30 years but basically it's still major human carpentry the carpentry plant for Yahya is extensive it's estimated his operation will take 8 [Music] hours it's expensive some of it is funded by donation and the doctors have given some of their time free of charge the most painstaking work involves a neurosurgeon separating yahya's brain from his [Music] skull so this is the delicate part of the operation is getting the brain separate from all of this Clift and sealed up so everyone sort of just a bit anxious at the moment [Music] outside the operating theater it's an agonizing wait for Fatima and yah's Mom and Dad there were a lot of mixed emotions I think there was a lot of mixed emotions for all of us you know we just banded together and supported each other I confar I've got my finger in the cliff the operation is going well but taking a lot more time than anyone expected yah has now been on the operating table for the last 8 hours and that time he's had a blood transfusion after losing almost half the entire volume of his blood he's also had the lining of his brain carefully dissected away from his skull right now he's moving from one critical phase to the next this is where they start remodeling the bones of his face [Music] if we can get his mouth closed his pallet right make him a nose so that he looks reasonably good bring the eye sockets together expand the lids so that he could have artificial eyes or pop on some Ray Charles glasses and and make him look human I mean that's his right and um I think if we can do that it will be a good thing a major part of rebuilding yah here's new face is getting the bones right they need to take the skull from looking like this to looking like this and that involves a series of cuts through the bones one in the middle of the face on the sides of the skull in the top of the pallet and also back here to fill the Gap in the front that will be formed when the bones are moved to form his face this is intricate delicate and very difficult surgery that's where you are see at the top of that there is a little hole moving the face was a big exercise it was a very slow process still a bit anxious about the actual drainage watching Tony work with such steady and meticulous care is a real privilege watching him do it for so long is a inspiring there's a large surgical team some work in shifts but most most including Tony are here for the entire operation it's been a physical and mental Marathon so it's 4:00 a.m. he's been on the operating table close to 19 hours yes yeah is it what you expected no no we thought we'd be a lot quicker than this great well hang on to that it's gone very well so far we're very happy couldn't be much better yeah I think we're all exhausted but um yeah it was a great achievement and hopefully uh he won't get complicated and settle down well we just have to wait and [Music] see the challenge facing the team of br I surgeons at Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital was to build yahir a face the surgery which involves separating his brain from his deformed skull has been both difficult and dangerous it was massive carpentry I mean we really completely changed uh whole structure of his face and repaired his jaw repaired his Cliff built him a nose and it's gone very well for w it's a huge Joy a huge happiness to see my son in such [Music] situation playing piano hello two weeks later yah is doing remark well his new face healing better than expected you can even see his smile heile he knows you he knows you very well I would expect so he's incredible he's just you know I I just can't believe what what he has been through and um how he just comes out and gets better and better every time the risks of the operation were great but I think they were worth it so that he could have a decent life what kind of future do you predict for this boy now a really bright one a really bright one he's a very smart little kid he's got so much potential there's no reason for him not to have a good healthy bright future and there's some other news in the family isn't there yes Yahya now has a baby sister her name is Amal she was born 5 weeks after his operation there were early fears she too could have been born with the same condition as Yahya she wasn't she is perfect in every way but when it comes to Miracles it's Yahya who steals the show hello M how good does he look looks amazing doesn't he that's incredible he's just like a little boy yeah it's amazing here I mean you kind of forget what it looked like before I know I I don't think about it anymore now um he's just um he's just yeah here to me I can't can't believe how quickly he's bounced back considering he's literally had his skull broken and put back together in multiple places in multiple places you got a roof to your mouth [Music] yeah Yahya still needs prosthetic eyes and some more surgery on his nose but already life is different this was Yahya before and this is how he looks today his new face is already giving him a chance to live close to a normal [Music] life something his family dreamed of something Fatima hoped for and now it's happening I brought y here for surgery I didn't count for um for another baby I didn't count for the whole family but everything is good everything is great you know where there's a will there's a way and there's a will you that you that doesn't he look great Dr Andrew Rochford reporting Penny MCA was the producer and congratulations to the amazing medical team at Royal Children's Hospital and the woman who made it all possible for Tima Baraka [Music]

Channel: 7NEWS Spotlight

Views: 4,397,135

Keywords: News, Channel 7, documentary, interview, 7news, spotlight, feature, story

Id: XdYba2_HtEw

Length: 24min 12sec (1452 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 27 2021