NAKHON SAWAN: When a pregnant monkey was killed by a car at her local temple, Padtama Kedkuerviriyanon didn't hesitate to save the unborn baby.

Although having no training, the 36-year-old monkey-food vendor delivered the baby monkey by Caesarian section.

Ms Padtama said she was horrified to see a female monkey, obviously in the last stages of pregnancy, run over and killed by a tourist's car at Wat Khao No in Banphot Phisai district last Friday.

“At that moment, I thought to myself the baby monkey would be dying inside its dead mother if I didn’t do anything to help save it,” she said.

She went to get a sharp knife and carefully cut open the dead monkey’s abdomen and removed the baby from the womb.

Ms Padtama said that while performing the operation she recalled what she had learned when a nurse helped her give birth many years ago, delivering her child by C-section.

As she performed the life-saving operation a relative was filming the moment with a phone. The video was later posted on Ms Padtama's Facebook account, and was quickly shared on social media.

The baby monkey is safe and sound, and Ms Padtama takes her everywhere she goes. It sleeps in Ms Padtama's bedroom with her when they are home. It needs constant care without her real mother. Ms Padtama feeds her with milk, using a syringe. 

“I think I will have to take care of it until she grows up enough to live on her own, possibly a year or so,” Ms Padtama said.