Th is poor six-year-old boy has a fourinch deep crack across his entire skull – and it’s getting bigger by the week. Pheaktra Pov was born with the defect after doctors warned mother Srey, 40, when she was seven-months pregnant that her baby had a ‘problem with his head.’
Th e youngster had a small crevice on the top of his skull but doctors were baffl ed and sent them home without any further treatment for the tot. Shockingly, the hole in his head has continued to get deeper and wider – now stretching from his forehead to the base of his skull on the back of his head. Doctors told Srey that there is nothing they can do but Pheaktra’s grandmother Th orn Hong , 67, is determined to fi nd a cure.
She wheels Pheaktra every weekend to the Angkor Watt temple in Siem Reap province, Cambodia, to beg for donations for her grandson, scraping together about £5 a day. Th orn said: “My daughter checked when she was three-months pregnant if anything was wrong and the doctors said everything was fi ne.”But at seven months they said there was a serious problem but it was too late to do anything. “Pheaktra was born with a crack in his head and it’s getting bigger all the time.
I can put my hand inside the middle, it is very big. • “Pheaktra’s father left before he was born so it’s just me and my daughter who take care of him. Doctors do not know what has caused this and they said there is nothing they can do. “Until he was fi ve-years-old it seemed like there was water inside his head and it was swelling and getting bigger.
“I get about $10 to $25 a week from people at the Angkor Watt temple when I go on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday.” Local charities supply free medicine to Pheaktra but it is to prevent seizures and has no eff ect on the bizarre crack in his head. Th orn added: “Th e children’s hospital give us some medicine but it is just to make Pheaktra feel better. We pray everyday for somebody in the world that knows how to fi x this.”
