Was this brutalization of doing a tonsillectomy on a three-year-old without anesthesia just a cultural shortcoming due to unavailability of medical supplies, or was this mistreatment a consequence of his status as a targeted individual?

You saw intuitively that the latter was the case. This was a needless inflicting of torture on a young child when circumstances could have been delayed a bit to prepare properly to carry out the procedure in a loving and respectful manner concurrent with contemporary medical practice. The fact this did not happen was directly the result of a manipulation done to his caregivers to make them insensitive in the moment and simply wanting to honor their convenience and schedules to be done with him, and that is why things went ahead causing great suffering and terrorizing him in the bargain. This same kind of manipulation is done routinely in many settings and is what allows people in times of war to torture their captives or to use civilian victims as a kind of punishment to add to the pain and suffering of the warriors who may return to a village and find their families decimated. This kind of suspension of morality is a hallmark of subconscious mind manipulation because it can be powerful enough to cause a suspension of morality and ethics for a time by hardening the person in a way they will be disconnected from their feelings and the consequences of their actions for a time. This is why so many people experience mistreatment through forgetfulness and neglect of those responsible for assisting and caring for their needs, it is not truly that their caregivers are heartless, they are, in effect, misdirected at times but will not be really aware of this until it is pointed out and then it will simply be puzzling and there will be little ownership of the problem because it was not intentional, nor remembered, and seems vague and almost like an exaggeration or false accusation, when in fact there was actual wrongdoing on their part.