Fez - A Moroccan boy born without a face, is being saved by the intervention of a Moroccan living in Australia.
Yahya, a little three year old boy, born near Tangier, was the main topic of an Australian TV show that was aired on Sunday.
The child was born without eyes, nose and upper jaw because without the bones in his face, they were not able to merge whilst he was still in his mother’s womb.
Yahya's father, Mustapha Zohra, who was desperate to find a solution for his son, consulted several surgeons who refused to operate him. Fortunately for him, the story of Yahya spread on social networks and attracted the attention of a Moroccan citizen living in Australia, Fatima Baraka.
"I opened my Facebook one day [...] and I saw an image that really caught my attention," Baraka said to the Australian Seven TV channel. While she was fighting breast cancer, Baraka contacted parents of Yahya and pledged to find a surgeon able to restore the boy's face.
Now, thanks to the efforts made by Fatima Baraka, Yahya will be operated by Melbourne reconstructive surgeon Tony Holmes.
The Australian surgeon, who met Yahya for the first time in August to assess his case, expressed his concern over the chances for the operation to succeed, adding that his case is extreme.
"My biggest concern is whether or not he is suitable for surgery, we really do not know how he is functioning and how the brain is functioning," he said.
"I think this one is about as difficult as it gets, on the you know, this is a 9-9.50 out of 10 degree of difficulty without any doubt I mean this is cranio-facial neurosurgery at its extreme," he added.
Holmes told the Australian TV channel that Yahya’s necessitates many surgeries and hoped he would complete the first surgery by the end of this year.
Thanks to the efforts made by Moroccan women and the Australian surgeon, Yahya may be able to lead a normal life and have a bright future.