TRANSCRIPT: The boy with no face
CHRIS BATH: A 3-year-old boy hidden from the world for his entire life, born without a face. His parents are desperate. They live in Morocco, love him dearly, but everywhere they turned and everyone they spoke to said nothing could be done for little Yahya. Then, by chance, a remarkable Melbourne woman saw his photograph and two lives were changed forever. Add to the mix the surgical team who separated Trishna and Krishna and you have this year's most heart-warming story. Here's Dr Andrew Rochford.
ANDREW ROCHFORD: "Here's looking at you, kid" - it's one of the most famous Hollywood movie lines of all time and yet, as I say it, right here in Casablanca, I can't help but recognise the sad irony that, for most people, just looking at the kid that I'm on my way to see is too much. His appearance is just far too confronting for them. His name is Yahya.
DR TONY HOLMES: I believe that it's the right of every body to look human and this kid doesn't look human.
He lives in a tiny village six hours' drive from Casablanca in Morocco. He's 3.5 years old and has beaten all the odds to be alive. Yahya was born without eyes, born without a nose, born without a functioning mouth. He's confronting to look at but in the village of his birth, he is greatly loved because he's a lovely boy whose life may soon change for the better, thanks to a team of brilliant Australian surgeons. When I first met him last month, I didn't know what to expect. Yahya can't talk. He has to grunt to communicate. But as I quickly learnt, in more ways than not, he's like any other toddler. And like any toddler, he loves a hug.
ANDREW ROCHFORD: Give us a cuddle. OK. OK.
Yahya's problems began in the womb when entire sections of his face and skull failed to develop.
ANDREW ROCHFORD: Yahya's deformity is severe. Sadly, there is 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 – should be his nose. You can see his mouth is opened and turns to the outside and just here under my fingers, I can feel a pulsation because between my fingers and his brain, there is no bone - it is just skin. And yet, despite his deformity, this is a beautiful, very sweet 3-year-old boy who can understand just why his parents... (Yahya burps) (LAUGHS) Oh! ...were so desperate to find him help. He is very much a 3-year-old boy. Goodness me! (LAUGHS) Oh, you're a rock star.
His mother and father are Fatima and Mostafa.
ANDREW ROCHFORD: Do you remember when Yahya was born and what it was like the first time that you saw his face?
MOSTAFA TRANSLATION (SUB-TITLES): 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.
His mum and dad love their son dearly and are very protective of him. It's rare that they take him into the village and when they do, they cover him up. Yahya can't see and the outside world never sees him. But he is social and loves playing with Heba, the 4-year-old girl from next door. She's besotted with him - so much so that 18 months ago, her dad reached out to the world on her behalf. He was seeking to find if there was any way any way anyone could help his daughter's best friend.
ANDREW ROCHFORD: This is Souk el Kadim, Yahya's home village. It couldn't be further away from Melbourne. In fact, I'm currently standing in the village's parking lot - for donkeys. It's hard to believe that one post on the internet from here could potentially change a little boy's life forever.
FATIMA: I opened up my Facebook one day and as I'm scrolling through, I saw an image that, you know, really caught my attention.
ANDREW ROCHFORD: What did you see?
FATIMA: (CRYING) It was this little boy, very young-looking little boy, with a very...um, very deformed face. I'll never forget that picture.
Fatima Baraka lives in Melbourne but was born and raised in Morocco in a village not far from Yahya's. She's the youngest of nine and when she was 8, she was sent to Australia to live with her brother. Two years ago, she was diagnosed with breast cancer.
ANDREW ROCHFORD: How was the treatment?
FATIMA: The hardest was waiting for the results. Once I knew, once I have the final test, and I knew that it hadn't spread anywhere else, I think I cried, I cried buckets of relief.
Cancer made her rethink her life. She wanted to share her good fortune by helping others doing it tough, especially kids. Which brings us back to that Facebook message that touched her so greatly.
FATIMA: There was a big phone number 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 dialling the number.
MOSTAFA TRANSLATION (SUB-TITLES): When she called me from Australia, she surprised me. I didn’t know anything about Australia.
FATIMA: He said, you know, "I just want my child to look as normal as possible so he can go outside and play with other kids."
She wrote to experts and hospitals all over the world, only to find the best in the world were right on her doorstep. Dr Tony Holmes is the Melbourne surgeon who led the team that separated conjoined twins Trishna and Krishna. After Fatima got in touch he began to think about what, if anything, could be done to fix Yahya's condition.
DR TONY HOLMES: We still really need to assess him and see if there is something we can do. We don't want to be experimenting on children. We have got to offer something reasonable and if he can have a reasonable face, be able to speak without having to talk through his cleft and his brain is reasonable, he could go on to really have a productive life.
What would be valuable for Dr Holmes was a first-hand medical examination of Yahya. I put my hand up and teamed up with Fatima in Morocco.
FATIMA: I can't wait to meet him. He has entered my heart, as we say in Morocco.
ANDREW ROCHFORD: You light up when you talk about him.
FATIMA: I do, I'm so in love with this little boy! And I've only seen him in photos, you know? I don't see a deformed child, I just see this beautiful little child who's... ..yeah, he is just a beautiful little soul. That's all I see. We are getting very close, so not long to go now.
ANDREW ROCHFORD: All that time ago, on that Facebook page, did you ever imagine you'd end up right here?
FATIMA: I wasn't sure but I was quite determined to end up right here, and here I am. Very emotional right now.
ANDREW ROCHFORD: Shall we go and meet him?
FATIMA: Yeah.
ANDREW ROCHFORD: What was your first impression when you saw his face?
FATIMA: I was quite shocked. I didn't think I would be shocked but I was, I was quite shocked. I was a little bit horrified, to be honest.
ANDREW ROCHFORD: What was it that horrified you?
FATIMA: His...his face. His face.
But that initial shock quickly passed as they quickly bonded. I think he knows there's a party going on. Our arrival was cause for celebration - a family meal amid the prospect of a brighter future for Yahya.
ANDREW ROCHFORD: We always knew when we decided to follow Fatima that it would be something special. It's not until right now that I think I fully understand just how much of a privilege it is to be right here, right now, witnessing this.
As the days passed, I watch how he cleverly adapted to cope with his disability. Like how he's able to suck from a bottle even though he has no functioning roof to his mouth. I also watched the beautiful bond between Yahya and Heba.
FATIMA: She is his favourite little friend and I'm told when she walks in the room, he hears her voice and he is really happy to hear her.
Yahya's social development appeared normal, a promising start. But in Australia, more information was required.
ANDREW ROCHFORD: What's your biggest concern at the moment?
DR TONY HOLMES: My biggest concern is whether or not he is suitable for surgery. We really do not know how he is functioning and how that brain is functioning.
ANDREW ROCHFORD: Can I have a look at your belly?
With his family's permission, I put Yahya through a series of simple developmental tests.
ANDREW ROCHFORD: Can have a look at your back? Eh! You're a good drummer. Good hearing. Does that sound better? Clever little brain in here somewhere. Very clever.
I was left in no doubt that Yahya should fly to Australia to be properly assessed for surgery.
ANDREW ROCHFORD: Tony, it's Andrew Rochford. How are you?
All that was left was to ring Dr Holmes.
ANDREW ROCHFORD: I know your big concern before I left was obviously getting an understanding, of, developmentally, where he was up to and we thought maybe his brain was involved in his deformity. The good news, the exciting news is, he has exceeded all my expectations from what he is capable of doing.
DR TONY HOLMES: Oh, that's great, that's great.
ANDREW ROCHFORD: We will be jumping on a plane in a day and heading in your direction. Looking forward to it.
DR TONY HOLMES: Look, thank you very much for the call, it's very encouraging.
ANDREW ROCHFORD: Thanks, Tony.
He rarely left his village, never left Morocco, and now, with his mum, Yahya was on his way to Australia. Ahead of him - a battery of tests that will determine once and for all whether building him a face is possible or just too risky. That decision lies ahead.
DR TONY HOLMES: The problem here that Yahya may not die if we don't operate... ..but he might if we do.
ANDREW ROCHFORD: How do you make that decision?
DR TONY HOLMES: Well, that is a difficult position. That is a real bioethical dilemma. So all of those things have to be decided when he comes out. Yeah, I'm pretty apprehensive about it.
MOIRA: Can you believe it? I can't believe it. Really?
But on Australian soil, with Mum holding his hand, the mood wasn't one of apprehension but of hope.
FATIMA: He is such a good kid. He is such a joy to be around and I love having him around. It's his favourite hat. It is a big change. Suddenly, he's not hearing the usual sounds and noises of his home. We go out and we go down to the beach, we go around the city and show them a bit of Melbourne. But I think he's settling in pretty well and so is his mum.
Fatima has brought Yahya and his mum to Australia to meet the team of world-class specialists at Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital. Dr Tony Holmes is perhaps Yahya's best chance at living a better life.
DR TONY HOLMES: It's lovely to meet you.
FATIMA: It's so good to meet you, finally. This is little Yahya.
DR TONY HOLMES: Yahya! How are you, hey? Good to see you.
But he won't be sure he can help until an extensive series of scans and examinations are completed.
DR TONY HOLMES: Good boy. You are being a very good boy.
ANDREW ROCHFORD: So Tony, first impressions - what did you think?
DR TONY HOLMES: It always is a big shock to see a little kid like that. This sort of clefting is very rare. Trying to make a normal nose - and we normally use, say, forehead skin for that - and he's got very odd skin right where we want to use it. So he's got good sensation.
ANDREW ROCHFORD: So what are the next tests that you need?
DR TONY HOLMES: The next tests are, we need good CT scans that show us all the detail, we need a good MRI, which is going to show us the neurological side of his brain.
Under a general anaesthetic, Yahya first undergoes an MRI. It will reveal the full extent of Yahya's deformity and the impact it may have had on his brain, allowing Dr Holmes to gauge the feasibility and the risks of surgery.
DR TONY HOLMES: Everybody wants to do it but you've got to be, you've got to do it right. We're not experimenting on him. We want to actually get a good result.
Then, he has a CT scan. Hundreds of images are used to create a 3-D view of Yahya's face and skull and the examinations are still not over.
DR TONY HOLMES: We've got to make sure he's fit and healthy, his diet has been up to scratch, that he can cope with a major operation, blood transfusions, major anaesthetic, all of that sort of thing.
ANDREW ROCHFORD: Is there still a chance that you can't operate?
DR TONY HOLMES: If things aren't right, we call it quits and we don't do it. It's as simple as that.
It takes two weeks for the test results to be compiled and then analysed.
FATIMA: Royal Children's Hospital just there. Just there.
The wait to learn whether Dr Holmes and his team will operate is nearly over.
ANDREW ROCHFORD: 18 months of very hard work, going to the other side of the world, falling in love with a small boy where all you want is to change his life and tomorrow, someone either tells you whether they can or they can't.
FATIMA: I do fear the worst but the other part is so optimistic and that one is winning, for some reason. So I just, I just have to go with those feelings and just hope for the best tomorrow.
ANDREW ROCHFORD: So go with your gut?
FATIMA: I've got everything I wished for him so far so... ..just need one more, one more wish to come true.
Yahya has travelled from a small village in Morocco to a large hospital on the other side of the world. His future rests with the words Dr Holmes is about to say.
DR TONY HOLMES: The good news is that we all feel that we should and could operate on him, which is fantastic. Doesn't get much better than that and we feel we should do it. It's good. It's alright. It's good. It's good. Better tell Mum.
The high-risk surgery will attempt to bring the two halves of Yahya’s skull together. His own skin could be used to build a new nose.
DR TONY HOLMES: Essentially, most of his brain looks relatively normal, so I'm optimistic he'll be able to progress remarkably.
The doctors have also discovered his vocal cords are intact so after surgery, Yahya might be able to speak.
DR TONY HOLMES: If we can give him a relatively normal face then he can get out there and, you know, have fun.
Thanks to the determined effort of one brave and passionate woman, Yahya is on his way to getting a new face and a new future.
ANDREW ROCHFORD: So your wish came true.
FATIMA: Yes!
ANDREW ROCHFORD: It's going to happen.
FATIMA: It's going to happen! I told you I had a good feeling about this.
ANDREW ROCHFORD: You did.
(LAUGHS) What a day. What an amazing day.
CHRIS BATH: And the good news is Yahya's operation should go ahead sometime in December. And if you'd like to help Fatima as she supports him and his mum, you can go to our website to make a donation. Dr Andrew Rochford was our reporter.
