It hasn’t been an easy week for Sia and Yianni.

Yianni, 15, can’t eat solid food yet, he’s been paralysed by pain and can’t even swallow his own saliva.

This is the harrowing reality of unprovoked assaults.

Yianni was left unconscious in a pool of his own blood after a group of three teenagers set upon him, stealing his phone at a bus stop in Chadstone.

Yianni suffered a deep cut above his eye, a lump on the back of his head and two dislodged teeth.

His mother Sia tells Neos Kosmos that after a week, her son is still in a lot of pain.

“Yianni is a really brave person overall and has a lot of inner strength, but he’s feeling a lot of pain, he can’t eat solid food, everything has to be soft, I’ve got to cut it in bite sized pieces,” she says.

“The damage he’s sustained in the bottom part of his mouth is quite extensive, he can’t even swallow his own saliva properly.”

The teenager was waiting at a bus stop to head to Chadstone shopping centre on Sunday at 12.30pm to get some lunch and use the free wi-fi, when the group of three boys approached him asking for cigarettes.

After Yianni replied he did not smoke, the group walked away, only to return a few minutes later.

“One started to touch my phone, and I asked ‘what do you guys want from me?'” Yianni told reporters at a police press conference this week.

The three boys then surrounded Yianni and began punching him.

“I yelled for help … I looked at [bystanders] but they just kept on walking,” Yianni said.

“I remember being punched and then I woke up with blood all over the floor and people telling me I was going to be all right.”

His mother coincidentally was at Chadstone with her husband, when she received a call every mother dreads.

“The first thing that went to my mind was, is Yianni in trouble with the law? But then that didn’t make sense, because Yianni is such a good kid, it didn’t make sense,” she says.

“I didn’t imagine what she was going to tell me.”

Panic stricken, Sia ran to the scene in hysterics, overcome by what she saw in the ambulance.

“I saw Yianni, blood everywhere, he was in shock, he was crying, he was shaking,” she says.

“They began telling me that Yianni was OK and was calling out about his teeth, my teeth.”

Just the week before, Yianni had been given the all clear by his orthodontist after years of wearing braces and expensive reconstructive surgery.

Now back at square one, Yianni will need years of surgery and suffer through more pain to restore his smile.

After he braved the cameras with his mother, Yianni hasn’t been able to return to class at his school, Oakleigh Grammar. The family did visit and were overcome with the level of support and kindness afforded to them.

The Greek community of Melbourne has also reached out, with Neos Kosmos’ Facebook feed overrun with well wishers and calls for quick justice.
Reader Georgie Paps felt compelled to write that it was “a disgrace that nobody intervened”.

For Sia, having to see her son lose his confidence and vibrancy has been one of the worst things to come out of the attack.

“His immediate response was ‘I’m never going anywhere again’. That was heartbreaking,” she says.

“On the school holidays, he was out every day meeting up with friends, going to different areas to follow his interests.”

“The things that angers and upsets me the most is I’m afraid that Yianni won’t be the same happy-go-lucky, adventurous, outspoken person that he is.”

The healing process will be long, but for Yianni, his maturity and perseverance will be his saviour.

Police are still calling for any witnesses to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.