Doctors did not believe Yahya El Jabaly would survive past birth. Born with no eyes, upper jaw, and an opening in his face where his nose should be, the young child beat all odds. Today, to the surprise of everyone, Yahya is 3 years old, and thanks to a lifesaving 18-hour reconstructive surgery, he has the chance to live even longer.

Born in a tiny village in Morroco, Yahya’s face did not develop correctly while he was in his mother’s womb. As a result, he was born with no bone between his forehead and brain.

“We don’t know what causes it. It’s sporadic, it’s not genetic, and most kids would not survive pregnancy. But some do,” Dr. Tony Holmes told Australia's 7 News.

Due to the severity of his deformity, Yahya’s father Mostafa struggled to find a surgeon to operate on his young son. It was not until one of Mostafa’s friends made a global plea on Facebook that Dr. Fatima Bakara, a Moroccan-born doctor currently working in Australia learned of the unique case, BuzzFeed reported. She then got in touch with Holmes and urged him to take on the case.

Holmes agreed to work on the child’s face, explaining: "I believe that it’s the right of everybody to look human, and this kid doesn’t look human.”

The extremely risky operation involved separating Yahya’s brain from his skull, and Holmes spent months preparing for the extremely high-risk surgery. Although the surgery took 10 hours longer than originally anticipated, Yahya pulled through and the operation was considered a success.