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Doctor's Death in Resort Pool: High Alcohol Reading
By Chutima Sidasathian Sunday, January 23, 2011
AN AUTOPSY found that the doctor drowned, Colonel Supachai Petchakul said on Monday. He said the autopsy revealed there were 0.3 milligrams of alcohol in the man's body. In Thailand, the blood alcohol limit for driving is .05.
PHUKET police are investigating the riddle of the death of a Hungarian doctor, who appears to have drowned in a swimming pool at a resort while taking a ''midnight dip.''
The dead man, aged in his 40s, was fished from the swimming pool at the Kamala Beach Resort, north of Patong on Phuket's west coast, about 8am today.
Police told Phuketwan today that the man was one of a party of 30 doctors who arrived on Phuket on a late-night flight last night.
Colonel Supachai Retchakul, of Kamala Police Station, said that staff at the resort told him that although the pool was closed, several of the doctors decided they needed a swim.
In the dark, it appears the presence of one of the doctors still in the pool was overlooked, he said. The pool was a short distance from the resort.
Other members in the party are likely to have already informed the dead doctor's relatives, but police plan to call the Hungarian Embassy in Bangkok on Monday. Officers named the dead doctor as Tibor Kafai, 42.
His body is now at Vachira Phuket Hospital, in Phuket City, having first been taken to Patong Hospital. A preliminary autopsy is to be carried out at Vachira Phuket.
Thorough autopsies that meet international standards are not available on Phuket. Full autopsies are usually carried out in Bangkok, at a cost to those who ask for them to be performed.
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Comments
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Rip doctor.
"Thorough autopsies that meet international standards are not available on Phuket. Full autopsies are usually carried out in Bangkok, at a cost to those who ask for them to be performed."
That's a relief. So the Vachira won't be including the cost of the autopsy in next year's whinge about how much non-paying farangs cost them.
Posted by
Mike Boyd
on
January 23, 2011 18:11
Editor Comment:
Mike, a visit to the outdoor morgue at Vachira might convince even you that there comes a time for everyone when money ceases to be of utmost importance. The point that Vachira cared for all those non-paying expat patients to the end seems to have escaped your accounting.
Wait a moment. This is an island which relies upon tourism to make the money it does.These tourists bring prosperity to it. If one of these benefactors dies - suspiciously or not - he or she deserves dignity, even in death. The mere fact that the morgue is outdoors denies this dignity. If Phuket wants to be the Monte Carlo of the east, or a 21st century Singapore as you reported a few weeks ago, I would respectfully suggest that it gets its act in order. Suggesting that a visit to the outdoor morgue may cure the ills of Mr Boyd is an insult. Rather than doing so, you should be lamenting the fact that the morgue itself is an insult.
Posted by
A. Skeptic
on
January 24, 2011 01:03
Editor Comment:
I lament all deaths, and the way you and ''Mr Boyd'' use even tragedies to pursue your own rogue goals is appalling. If all expats had proper insurance and were able to pay their hospital bills, the amenities at Vachira Phuket would probably be to a high international standard. We've certainly reported the viewpoint of others that Phuket could grow to become an island-city, like Singapore. Whether it's a prosperous one will, fortunately, not be left to you and ''Mr Boyd.''
I am sorry, but i could not help but agree with the editor on this one....this is Thailand its not the National health service...of UK OR EUROPE...I think a lot of expats should think more before they make comments like this...
Posted by
STAN
on
January 24, 2011 04:55
Ed said: "If all expats had proper insurance and were able to pay their hospital bills, the amenities at Vachira Phuket would probably be to a high international standard."
Ed, dead or bill-skipping farangs cost Vachira 1.3 million baht last year. Are you listening? 1.3 million baht. That is chicken feed. And if you think saving 1.3 million baht per year will change the Vachira from an over-worked, cheap, low-end hospital into a "high international standard" hospital, you are living in cloud cuckoo land.
Posted by
Mike Boyd
on
January 24, 2011 18:42
Editor Comment:
Hello Mike, Perhaps you haven't seen Vachira lately but 1.3 million baht is a lot of money for any public hospital in Thailand. It would cover vast improvements to the outdoor morgue, for a start. Your constant attempts to find excuses for expats who can't pay their bills is embarrassing. Vachira did the right thing by treating these people, knowing they couldn't pay. Your criticism is just plain wrong. If you think 1.3 million baht is an inconsequential sum to Vachira, or in the context of expats unable to pay their medical bills, you are flying several thousand feel above cloud cuckoo land. If 1.3 million baht is chicken feed to you, throw some the hospital's way. And you clearly know nothing about the standards of the hospital. Embarrassing, Mike. Embarrassing.
No, I haven't seen (i.e. been inside) the Vachira lately - the last time was about two years ago. But I drive past it nearly every day.
Perhaps you'd enlighten us as to how much the Vachira costs to run each year and how much money it gets from its patients and put that into the context of a paltry 1.3 million baht.
And I am not excusing farangs for not paying their bills but trying to convince you that 1.3 million baht is a small amount relative to the annual running costs of this huge hospital.
Posted by
Mike Boyd
on
January 24, 2011 19:25
Editor Comment:
You are looking down on Vachira like some cloud-cuckoo accountant. If you were lying on a bed, looking up, needing a piece of equipment that Vachira can't afford, or a medicine that is beyond the hospital's budget, your view of the 1.3 million baht would be different. We often go to Vachira and it's always an impressive place. It could always use more money. It will probably continue to treat expats whether or not they can pay, whether or not they simply choose not to pay. To measure such generosity in purely financial terms shows a lack of understanding of what Thailand is all about. The first time I went to Vachira was on December 26, 2004. I was impressed then by what could be done on heart and spirit alone. I have never come away from Vachira less than impressed. The money? Hang onto it, Mike, if it's so important to you. But you're missing out on something.
I write from Hungary, Szeged.
I have read the conversation below, but since I haven't been to Thailand, I don't know if the Vachira is a good hospital or not. But the doctor who died was one of my friends - and he was not an alcoholic, what's more he rarely drank, so I can hardly understand what happened to him...-, and I think the hospital, the police, the staff and everyone have done their best there.
Let me say thank you all for this, indeed.
Posted by
L??szl?? Nov??k
on
January 26, 2011 08:11
Seems like you can't answer simple questions and would rather resort to personal attacks, which is a shame.
You haven't said or enquired, probably, just how much fee-skipping Thais cost the hospital.
You haven't said or enquired, probably, how much it costs to run the Vachira and how much it gets from all its fees.
You concentrate on the absolute value of 1.3 million baht lost from 17 foreigners rather than its relative value to this hospital.
I'm glad you've had good experiences at the Vachira. I've had both good and poor - not me personally but for friends I've taken there.
You tell me to hang on to my money as if I'm one of these bill-skippers. Another unfounded insult by a 'moderator' who is supposed to censure insults, not make them, and to weed out the trolls, not to become one.
Posted by
Mike Boyd
on
January 27, 2011 12:55
Editor Comment:
Let's stick with the principles, Mike. If you've lost the argument, no need to attempt insults. I try to never resort to that, and many other readers wouldn't see anything particularly personal in my responses. All I've done is question your values. If you want to constantly hear the sound of your own voice, there are plenty of sites where all you'll hear are echoes. And why not make your own phone calls?
Editor: "no need to attempt insults. I try to never resort to that"
You need to try harder.
Posted by
Mike Boyd
on
January 30, 2011 22:00
Editor Comment:
Mike, on an article noting the death of a tourist, your nit-picking and slurs are, as always, inappropriate and ineffective.
You make a remark about my nit-picking and slurs! Ha, ha, ha. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.
How about this for 'slurs': "Your argument is so lame it needs treatment."
And this: "you are flying several thousand feel above cloud cuckoo land."
And: "What you seem to need desperately is a values transplant. Without it, your inner spirit will wither terminally. While you're at it, get an implant so you can tell right from wrong."
All of them are silly remarks directed at me by you.
And nit-picking?
As reported in another local paper:
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"Vachira Phuket Hospital 2 was set up to help reduce the number of patients at Vachira Phuket Hospital, which is now up to 2,000 a day" Hospital Director Dr Jessada Chungpaibulpatana said.
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And you think 17 foreigners who didn't pay their bills - for one reason or another, e.g. they died - is going to make a big difference to this hospital?
I don't think so.
Your comments both in this story and the original one about "foreigners 'stressing' Vachira" lack something. I'm not sure what, but I think you need to get away from this 'Thai Visa forum' style of posting and get a bit more professional.
Posted by
Mike Boyd
on
February 7, 2011 02:19
Editor Comment:
Your defence of expats who stay in hospital and don't pay their bills tells us all we need to know, Mike. Diversions don't excuse it.
OK. Last attempt at getting through on this subject...
I am not defending the bill-skipping foreigners. And I pay all my bills.
Another paper says the Vachira is dealing with up to 2,000 patients per day.
You imply that 17 foreigners over the course of one year have caused this hospital to be financially "stressed" because these 17 foreigners did not pay their bills - because they died or simply left the hospital.
You know that Vachira has now opened an outpatient clinic at the Slaughterhouse Intersection in Phuket Town? So they can't be short of a bob or two. Or maybe they overspent and are trying to recoup their losses.
To summarise, the article in the Bangkok Post was a typical bigoted anti-farang diatribe that you proudly boasted was a follow up of a Phuketwan exclusive.
And to blame Vachira's problems on a couple of dozen foreigners when Vachira is treating up to 2000 patients a day is ridiculous.
Posted by
Mike Boyd
on
February 10, 2011 19:52
Editor Comment:
Having expats occupy beds at a Thai public hospital and then leave without paying is unconscionable. (We don't ''imply'' anything. readers draw their own conclusions.) To its credit, Vachira - unlike most hospitals in the west - treats them until they die, for free. Whether it's a big drain on the hospital's overall finances or not is beside the point. It's morally wrong and it shouldn't happen. The hospital has other, larger problems - like income to pay for all treatment. To have expats pile on the abuse is not acceptable, particularly if it is done with deliberation. There is no way it can be justified. There is no way it can be excused. There is no way it can be ignored.
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Rip doctor.
"Thorough autopsies that meet international standards are not available on Phuket. Full autopsies are usually carried out in Bangkok, at a cost to those who ask for them to be performed."
That's a relief. So the Vachira won't be including the cost of the autopsy in next year's whinge about how much non-paying farangs cost them.
Posted by Mike Boyd on January 23, 2011 18:11
Editor Comment:
Mike, a visit to the outdoor morgue at Vachira might convince even you that there comes a time for everyone when money ceases to be of utmost importance. The point that Vachira cared for all those non-paying expat patients to the end seems to have escaped your accounting.