A FAMILY of four residing in Sai Mai district who all realised they were infected with coronavirus on April 8 faced difficulty in getting hospitalised with two members, the father and son, only being taken to hospital by an ambulance days later, Sanook.com today (April 17) related a TV Channel 3 programme as saying.
The father, Mr Suraphon (surname withheld), 41, said he was the first one to get infected with this being at work and underwent a Covid test on April 8 together with a colleague.
Upon returning home the other three family members, his mother, wife and son, too had Covid symptoms with his mother quickly being hospitalised.
However when he contacted the hospital to send an ambulance to also take the three of them to hospital, they said they would do so after there is a confirmed positive test result.
When Suraphon’s result came out on April 12, he again contacted the health authorities, calling the hotlines 1668 and 1669 till the battery ran out but no one answered. He contacted a hospital but they said there was no free bed.
Later his 40-year-old wife Wanida’s condition started to deteriorate fast, suffering from chest pain and coughing up blood from a previous tuberculosis infection, so she contacted Mr. Ekaphob Luengprasert, an assistant to Sai Mai district’s MP, who stepped in to help.
On April 14 Ekaphob contacted Erawan Centre to send an ambulance, which when it arrived only took Wanida, the critical case, to the hospital placing the other two on a waiting list.
However an Erawan Centre ambulance later did show up and took the father and son for treatment. Ekaphop crouched down and gave a wai to the ambulance staff for doing so.
He said his condition had started to improve but his 20-year-old son was in a bad state, suffering from chest pain, very heavy cough and gasping for breath, running high fever, having headaches and feeling dizzy, and if the ambulance was going to take only one person he would have sent his son.
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Top and Home Page: Ekaphop crouching as he gave the ambulance staff a wai when they came to take his son and himself to the hospital. Thai headline says, “Four lives, the whole family, infected with Covid.” Photo: Sanook.com
