Archive & Career: Ky Santy, “Proud of the Quality Medicine We Provide at Kantha Bopha”
After Yay Chantana and Denis Laurent, Cambodian professor Ky Santy talks about his early days at Kantha Bopha Children's Hospital and explains how proud he is that the kingdom can now offer high-quality medicine.
Cambodge Mag: Could you introduce yourself briefly and tell us about your beginnings at Kantha Bopha?
Ky Santy: I was hired in 1995 by Dr Beat Richner, the hospital's founder. I had just finished my medical studies at the State Faculty and was doing my internship at Kantha Bopha, which had opened barely three years earlier. Dr Richner interviewed me, with Yay Chantana present. He is now the director of the Jayavarman VII hospital in Siem Reap.
I was asked about my knowledge of medicine and paediatrics, and also about my French. I was a very young student then. The interview went well enough for me to be selected. So I joined the 10 students fresh out of the faculty, 10 young doctors among the very first recruits.
“We started in February 1995. The hospital was still small and only provided general medicine and intensive care.”
I spent my first year at Kantha Bopha in what we call Ward C, for slightly older children. Only later did I join the radiology department. At the time there was no academic training in that specialty. I learned the basics of medical imaging inside the hospital. It interested me right away, and I decided to follow that path. The hospital had one of the only ultrasound machines in the country. It was wonderful!
A year later, in 1996, the Kantha Bopha annex opened right next to the Royal Palace, on land donated by the King Father Norodom Sihanouk. I joined Kantha Bopha II, which had brand-new equipment: a new ultrasound machine, a Doppler, and even a CT scanner, the first in Cambodia.
C.M.: What was it like working with Dr Richner?
K.S.: He was very serious at work. Strict, but always fair. He came to see me every day, as he did with the rest of the team on his rounds. He made sure the scanner kept working, because breakdowns on that kind of machine were hard to fix. The smallest problem meant calling in a specialist engineer based in Bangkok.
The machine had to work. It was the key diagnostic tool, especially for tuberculosis, which was endemic at the time. The disease can be very serious, yet it is very hard to detect without good equipment. The first signs are small nodes in the lungs. That is why the scanner mattered: in these cases it is far more effective than lab tests.
C.M.: Tuberculosis was a scourge in Cambodia in the 1990s. Why?
K.S.: The disease is caused by a germ spread through coughing or spitting, and it infects the weakest. For a very long time, childhood tuberculosis simply didn't exist. Not because it wasn't there, but because it wasn't diagnosed.
Children were completely forgotten. From his first stay at Kantha Bopha in 1974–1975, Dr Richner had noticed how common the disease was. So he paid particular attention to it when he returned in 1992. In the 1990s, more than 30% of children admitted to the hospital came in with chronic forms of tuberculosis, a disease that can sadly be fatal without treatment.
C.M.: What are the main health problems you face day to day?
K.S.: The most common are respiratory infections, encephalitis, meningitis, heart or gastrointestinal malformations in newborns, and accidents and injuries. There are a great many road accidents, and they can be very serious, especially when the child isn't wearing a helmet.
“We also see desperate cases, children treated for several days in private clinics without proper care or diagnosis.”
When a patient keeps getting worse, they are sent to us as an emergency, but sometimes it is too late. The good news in recent years is that the roads have improved a lot. Our centres in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap can be reached within a few hours from any province, so patients get care much faster than before.
C.M.: How do you care for children injured in accidents? Can they get rehabilitation, for example?
K.S.: Yes, we have departments equipped for long-term treatment and rehabilitation.
C.M.: Besides treating patients, the Kantha Bopha hospitals are also training centres, aren't they?
K.S.: Absolutely. We are also teaching hospitals. Professor Chanty, for example, teaches at the Faculty of Medicine. Every year, 1,000 students train in our hospitals. We are recognised as centres of excellence. Apart from oncology, we have caught up with hospitals in Singapore and Bangkok in every field.
For a long time, Cambodia's medical system had a bad reputation. Those who could afford it went abroad as soon as a problem looked serious. That perception is slowly fading, especially since we have made a point of offering here what used to be possible only abroad. Heart surgery and intensive care, for example.
C.M.: Back to you. Why did you choose this profession?
K.S.: I've been thinking about medicine since high school, even though the studies are long and hard. On top of that, we had to learn French, since it was the main language in the field. I have now worked at Kantha Bopha for more than 27 years, alongside the children, and I'm proud of that.
“Proud of myself, but also proud to show that Cambodia can deliver quality medicine.”
Having contributed to that, having given time and knowledge to medicine, fills me with joy.
C.M.: A word about Dr Beat Richner?
K.S.: Yes. One thing will always stay in my heart: the venture he took on. Building not one but several children's hospitals, turning them into international references, and fighting for all children, so quickly. It's hard to imagine.
I will never forget that he trusted me to set up the radiology department at Kantha Bopha Siem Reap. He always wanted the same standard of care in every hospital. Not a day goes by without me thinking of Dr Richner. He was our boss, but in a way also a father figure. Beat and his successor, Peter Studer, left an immense legacy.
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