When Thai artillery targeted the area of the Ta Mone Thom Temple, in Oddar Meanchey province’s Banteay Ampil district, they claimed they were aiming for military targets.
The mother of 10-year-old Thy Kimsort knows the results of indiscriminate shelling all too well.
She recounted the horror of an attack by Thai forces on her home near the border, in Kok Mon commune.
At 7pm on July 24, shrapnel from a Thai shell struck her son, shattering his hip.
While medical teams immediately rushed Kimsort to the Jayavarman VII Children’s Hospital in Siem Reap, the initial prognosis was not good.
“At first, the doctors said there was little hope because he had lost so much blood. It took four bags of plasma before his condition began to improve,” explained his mother.
“Initially, his leg was severely swollen, but it has now the swelling has gone down a little,” she told The Post.
Surgeon Keo Sokha noted that when Kimsort was first brought into the emergency room at the Jayavarman VII Hospital, the injury to his left hip and the severe anaemia caused by massive blood loss left some of the staff shaking their heads.
After 15 minutes of desperate emergency treatment, the boy regained consciousness.
Sokha explained that once the blood loss was addressed, it was time to correct the hip injury.
A metal rod was inserted through Kimsort’s hip bone and will be removed after a few months.
With the right follow up treatment, he expected to the young man to make a full recovery, with no mobility issues.
On August 4, First Lady Pich Chanmony paid a personal visit to Kimsort. She promised to check up on his recovery and offered her support to his family, should they need it.
