A four-year-old Siem Reap boy who was stung by an estimated 90 wasps is now expected to make a full recovery from his ordeal, after more than a full month of hospitalisation.
The boy was stung on April 8 while collecting cashews with his grandmother. Fortunately, relatives rushed him to the Kantha Bopha Foundation’s Siem Reap Jayavarman VII Hospital.
Hospital director Yay Chantana told The Post on May 14 that the boy arrived with no time to spare.
“His condition was one of the most serious our team has ever seen. If he had not made it to the hospital in time, I doubt he would have survived,” he said.
He explained that when the boy arrived at the intensive care unit, he was unconscious, with failing kidney and liver functions.
“Our specialists immediately put the patient on oxygen, and began the process of flushing the toxins from his liver and kidneys,” he said.
“His organ function is now back to normal, but it was touch-and-go for three weeks or so as to whether the treatment would be successful. He is perfectly healthy now, and we expect him to return home in the next few days,” he added.
PNN TV spoke to the boy’s grandmother.
“I took him out into the fields to pick cashews. I didn’t see any ripe fruit on one tree, and didn’t go near enough to see the wasp’s nest. My grandson must have wanted to help me, because he saw some ripe fruit and went under the tree,” she explained.
“That was when I heard him screaming. He was already covered by the wasps, and could not run way,” she added.
Chantana said that in the first four months of the year, Kantha Bopha had treated about five cases where people had been stung more than 10 times, but he had never seen an incident as serious as the 90 stings absorbed by the little boy.
Last year, a team at the Phnom Penh branch of the foundation saved the life of a five-year-old girl from Tbong Khmum province after she received 50 wasp stings.
At the time, the hospital described the case as one of the most serious they had seen, with the effect of the toxins causing a rupture of the pulmonary sac and kidney failure. Thankfully, she responded to their treatment, and is now healthy.
The Kantha Bopha Foundation offers free treatment to children at all of its locations across Cambodia, but relies entirely on donors to support its operations. The foundation recently added a QR code to the Kingdom’s most popular banking apps to facilitate donations from all philanthropists, big or small.
