Masseuse set on fire on Patong Beach

February 13 - March 19, 2007 German

 

From: http://phuketgazette.com/news/index.asp?fromsearch=yes&Id=5519 :

 

PATONG: After yelling at a Patong Beach masseuse about her crying daughter, a man doused the woman with paint thinner and set her alight about midday on Tuesday, 2/13.

As the girl’s parents ran to their daughter’s aid, outraged witnesses pounced on the man and beat him.

The mother is now in hospital, critically injured with first-degree burns. Her attacker, a drug addict, will be sent to a psychiatric hospital for evaluation, police say.

Kathu Police Duty Inspector Pol Lt Col Sophon Borrirak confirmed that the attack was carried out by Sombun Kaewkhaaw, 43, from Tambon Paknam in Chumphon’s Muang District.

Sombun is apparently well-known in the Loma Park area of Patong Beach, where he has been seen spending much of his time huffing paint thinner, bothering beach vendors and harassing foreign tourists. However, he had never before been implicated in a violent crime.

Speaking yesterday afternoon at Vachira Phuket Hospital, where her daughter Saijai, 21, is being treated for burns to 30% of her body, 49-year-old Pennee Phromdaen told the Gazette that on Tuesday her family was working as usual at Patong Beach.

Khun (= Mrs). Pennee went to escort K. Saijai’s two-year-old daughter, Sairung “Ice” Parnsang, to buy iced coffee from a nearby vendor while Saijai and her father stayed behind under the shade of an awning where they work massaging foreign tourists. While walking back to the awning, the little girl became fussy, demanding to be carried.

As her hands were already full with a bowl of noodles, K. Pennee could not carry the child. She walked back to the awning, less than 10 meters away, to ask K. Saijai to carry the crying child. Left alone, the girl started screaming. Her crying apparently agitated Sombun, who was in the area and carrying two green tea bottles full of paint thinner.

When K. Saijai went to retrieve her child, Sombun started ranting at her. Witnesses later said the man was incomprehensible. K. Saijai carried the child back to the awning before returning to argue with Sombun.

As they argued, Sombun pulled out a bottle of thinner, doused K. Saijai’s shirt with it, and set her alight with a cigarette lighter. As flames engulfed her body and she fell to the ground, Sombun picked up a metal tent stake and was about to hit her with it, but then turned and ran away, she said.

K. Pennee and her husband ran to help their daughter. They pulled off her burning shirt, but her bra continued to burn. The flames were eventually doused with water, but not before Saijai had sustained serious burns over most of the front of her upper body. The flames also burned off much of her hair and left her unconscious.

Saijai was rushed by beach guards to Patong Hospital, where she received emergency treatment. She was later transferred to Phuket International Hospital and again, for financial reasons, to Vachira Phuket Hospital. Doctors there estimate it will be at least a month before she can be released.

Phuket Governor Niran Kalayanamit has promised financial help for the cost of Saijai's treatment, K. Pennee told the Gazette.

Holding the hand of her daughter, whose entire upper body is covered in bandages, K. Pennee told the Gazette she wants government officers to help look after the public by not allowing obviously disturbed people to threaten society.

She described her daughter, who remains unable to speak, as a friendly, hardworking girl who had followed in her own footsteps by becoming a beach masseuse. Saijai's husband, the child's father, is from Trang, and the whole family lives together in Chalong Village 10, K. Pennee said.

The beating administered to Sombun left him with a broken nose and covered with bruises. There were no reports of arrests relating to the beating.

During questioning, Sombun told police that he had once been employed as a teacher at Bang Neaw School, a government primary school in Phuket City, and had also once held the rank of sergeant in the Thai Army, assigned to a special forces unit.

Col Sophon noted that the contradictory and confused nature with which Sombun answered questions, and the fact that he had no evidence to back up what he said, left police sceptical.

Sombun will be sent to Suan Saranrom Hospital in Surat Thani where his mental condition will be assessed. He will be charged if deemed sane, Col Sophon said. ++

 

 

Dr Hoss: The family urgently needs cash for current expenses, as their only income was from the beach business. -- Donations can be taken in person directly to Khuns Pennee and Saijai at Vachira Hospital, Phuket Town, Yahowarai Road, at Kao Rang Rd. Just ask at the information window where to go. – Or wire money securely and fee-free via Moneybookers.com for

SaijaiAid@yahoo.com

 

 

 

 

 

Read the update of Feb 23 I have posted on the Internet:

 

 

 

 

 

Buy Burn Victim’s Massage Futures!

Here’s the latest: I went to Vachira Hospital in Phuket town (the place where many of the tsunami victims were treated for free, remember?) to see Khun (= Ms) Saijai (21) and her family. She was a disturbingly sorry sight, covered in bandages with her face a mess of burned and re-growing skin, still making it impossible for her to speak. Her family was there with her helping with the care. The little girl Sairung (2, aka “Ice”) is actually still too scared to look at her own mom (no wonder: she looks like the “Mummy” from the horror movie). The husband was there too and seems to be an OK guy, but who knows what the future will hold for their marriage now that his young wife is scarred for life.

Thesere are the businesses who have graciously permitted the collection cans:

 

Manni's Bakery, just 75 meter off the Chalong traffic circle on Chalong Pier Rd, left.

Sunee Sauna and Massage, 100 further west, left.

KL Market, on the opposite side of the circle, 100 m left

FlintsOne Bakery, Joy Market, near Land & House, Chaofa Rd E

Chalong Gym, “

Nung Pharmacy, “

Used Book Store, 500 m north of there, opposite turn-off to Zoo/Aquarium.

 

BTW: These local family businesses are highly recommended anyway. Give them your trade. Other businesses who want to allow the collections cans please e-mail saijaiaid @ yahoo.com (remove spaces)

 

People overseas or out of town can send any amount of money, large or small, to SaijaiAid@yahoo.com securely and discreetly via Moneybookers.com by credit/debit card, bank transfer, cash deposit and even mobile phone. Moneybookers operates worldwide, practically without fees (unlike PayPal and Western Union who’s fees are prohibitive) and actually pays “brownie points” for each transaction which also will go to the beneficiaries 100%. They are based in London and Munich (a branch of Commerzbank). Donations by credit/debit card, bank transfer or even mobile phone: via http://Moneybookers.com for SaijaiAid@yahoo.com .

 

 

Everybody who donates THB 400 (about EUR/USD 12.- ) or more gets a transferable voucher for a free 4-handed one hour Thai Nuad massage (aka Thai Yoga) on Patong Beach as soon as Khun Saijai has recovered! How’s that for a deal?

 

Now if you feel like donating multiples of THB 400 (about EUR/USD 12.- ) you’ll receive several massage vouchers. Sell ‘em with a profit! Auction them off on eBay! That’s the spirit of Micro-Capitalism! (that’s what that guy got the Peace Nobel Prize for, remember). Keep the returns or donate them: totally “Up to you!” as they say in the Land of Smiles.

 

 

Donations by credit/debit card, bank transfer or even mobile phone: via http://Moneybookers.com for SaijaiAid@yahoo.com .

 

Latest picture 2/26/07:

 

Bandages are off Ms Saijai’s face. She is slowly healing. She now speaks again with a hoarse voice (due to flame inhalation). Family matriarch Ms Pennee teaches her granddaughter Sairung (2) the “wai” (Thai greeting and thank-you gesture) as she receives the latest cash donations, vitamins, room disinfectants and health foods:

 

Donations by credit/debit card, bank transfer or even mobile phone: via http://Moneybookers.com for SaijaiAid@yahoo.com .Latest update: Wed March 7th, 2007 This afternoon I went to Vachira hospital to hand over the latest donations and to check on Khun Saijai’s progress. She was alone in her room awake and quite talkative.

Her bandages still cover most of her upper body, arms and face. But her speech has improved. She told me in broken English that the worst burns on her chest (where the synthetic materials of her bra burned the hottest) will require skin grafts, but the procedure was postponed to allow as much natural healing as possible. She complained about headaches and sleeplessness, which are medicated as needed.

What moved me the most is that she complained she still cannot hug or kiss her 2-yr old daughter Sairung (2 aka “Ice”) when she visits because of the pain in her arms and the fear the little girl still has of her because of her facial burns.

I’m not a psychiatrist but this sounds a lot like post-traumatic stress to me, probably in all the victims of this attack, either by fire or shock (K Saijai, her mother K Pennee and the daughter).

It was hard to keep a dry eye, but I tried to cheer K Saijai up as well as I could. I told her in my opinion she had stood up to a threat to her daughter like a lioness mother to a hyena. Her sacrifice had helped to take a criminally insane person off the most popular beach on Phuket.

She was happy to receive me and reported that a few others have shown up with gifts and best wishes. She was quite touched by the collection money, especially the small change people in local stores had put into the collection cans, some of them school children and low paid staff. I read the good wishes to her that overseas givers had included in their e-mails to SaijaiAid@yahoo.com via https://www.moneybookers.com/app/?rid=2206130.

K. Saijai told me that the doctors now (as of 03/13) predict at least another month in the hospital (maybe two, the nurses say) and a long time of recovery with no work allowed for her on the beach foreseeable for quite some time.

The donations handed over to Saijai’s family are now at THB 12,980.- total, certainly not enough but gratefully accepted for immediate needs.

I am in the process of setting up a small trust fund with the help of an anonymous ferang donor to make sure that at least their basic expenses are covered for the next year or two. Hopefully we all can do better than that and assure both mother and child a secure future. It would be a shame and “bad Karma” for us all if they ended up homeless and destitute.

As I left the husband showed up to keep her company. K. Saijai admonished me to “drive slowly” so I would not end up like her.

Latest update: Wed March 19th, 2007

German:

Patong, Phuket: Strand-Masseuse durch Molotov-Cocktail schwer verletzt.

 

Am 13. Februar mittags wurde eine 21-jährige Strand-Masseuse auf dem Patong Beach von einem zu-geschnüffleten Mann mit Farbverdünner überschüttet und in Brand gesteckt, unter den Augen von hunderten entsetzen Touristen. Ihre Eltern und 2-jährige Tochter waren auch Zeugen des Angriffs. Eine aufgebrachte Menge verprügelte den Mann, und die Frau wurde mit Verbrennungen 2. und 3. Grades im Gesicht, am Oberkörper und den Armen ins Krankenhaus gebracht. Der Attentäter wurde in ein Irrenhaus in Surat transportiert. (Siehe http://phuketgazette.com/news/index.asp?fromsearch=yes&Id=5519 wo der Name der jungen Frau < Khun Saijai, nicht ganz richtig phonetisch umschrieben ist und die Verbrennungen inkorrekt als nur 1. Grades bezeichnet werden.)

 

Zehn Tage später liegt Frau Saijai noch immer im Vachira-Hospital in Phuket Town. Außer Schmerzlinderung und Verbandwechsel fand noch keine Behandlung statt. Heute, Freitag, den 23. Feb, soll mit Hautübertragungen begonnen werden. Die Frau muss noch mindestens einen Monat im Krankenhaus bleiben und wird danach noch lange arbeitsunfähig bleiben. Ihre Mutter, Khun Pennee betrieb vor dem Attentat mit ihr zusammen die Massageteatigkeit unter einem Sonnendach am Strand und muss sich jetzt rund um die Uhr um die Verletzte kümmern, um die Krankenschwestern zu entlasten. Ständig müssen die Brandwunden gereinigt und neu mit schmerzstillenden, antibiotischen Salben eingecremt werden.

 

Ein deutscher Pensionär, Dr phil Gerd Hoss, besuchte die Verletzte gestern spontan. Die Unterbringung in einem Einzelzimmer und die Hygiene entsprechen in etwa dem deutschen Standard, und die gesamten Kosten werden vom nationalen Gesundheitsdienst von Thailand getragen, wie Stationsschwester Khun Ni Lobon versicherte.

 

Allerdings bleiben jetzt in der wichtigen Hochsaison praktisch alle Einnahmen der Familie aus, nur der Vater und Ehemann der Verletzen verdienen ein paar Baht als Strandverkäufer. Auch sie verbringen viel Zeit im Krankenhaus bei ihrem Familienmitglied. Die kleine Tochter, Nung Sairung (2) fürchtet sich jetzt aber vor der eigenen Mutter mit den grässlichen Brandwunden und unheimlichen Verbänden.

 

Die Familie wohnt in ihrem eigenen kleinen Haus in Chalong. Aber leider haben sie gerade in Moped auf Abzahlung gekauft, wofür sie THB 3000 monatlich zahlen müssen, damit es der Händler nicht pfändet.

 

Dr Hoss bot der Matriarchin der Familie, Khun Pennee, THB 4000 als Soforthilfe an, was sie nur zögernd und nur unter der Bedingung annahm, dass sie und ihre Tochter das Geld mit Massagen abarbeiten dürfen.

 

Wer genauso hilfsbereit sein möchte, kann elektronisch über https://www.moneybookers.com/app/?rid=2206130 an das Spendenkonto SaijaiAid@yahoo.com überweisen (Kredit-/Debitkarte, Banküberweisung, in BRD auch per Bareinzahlung und Handy) Moneybookers ist eine Zweigfirma der Commerzbank in München und London und nimmt keine Gebühren, auch nicht bei Auslandstransaktionen. Die Wechselkurse sind korrekt. Also kommt jeder Cent und jeder Baht dieser Familie in Not zugute.

 

Hilfsbereite Menschen auf Phuket können ihre Spenden auch persönlich an Frau Pennee, die Mutter des Attentatspopfers, im Vachira-Krankenhaus auf der Yahowarai Road, Ecke Kao Rang Rd., übergeben. Der Informationsschalter gibt Auskunft, wo das Zimmer der Verbrannten liegt: Erdgeschoss, 1. Gang links, vorletztes Gebaeude rechts, Zimmer 3.

 

 

 

Wer mehr als THB 400 oder EUR 10 spendet, bekommt einen übertragbaren Gutschein für eine einstündige vierhändige Strandmassage durch Khun Saijai und Khun Pennee in Patong, sobald die erstere voll genesen ist (sorry, Flug nicht inbegriffen). Weiterverkauf /-versteigerung OK.

 

Zur Erinnerung: in diesem selbigen Vachira-Krankenhaus wurden nach der 2004-Tsumami viele Verletzte gratis und unbürokratisch versorgt, auch viele Deutsche. Danach erhielt das Hospital aus Dankbarkeit z B von der australischen und schwedischen Regierung Millionenspenden, welche in die Infrastruktur der Einrichtung investiert wurden.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Latest update: Wed March 7th, 2007 This afternoon I went to Vachira hospital to hand over the latest donations and to check on Khun Saijai’s progress. She was alone in her room awake and quite talkative.

Her bandages still cover most of her upper body, arms and face. But her speech has improved. She told me in broken English that the worst burns on her chest (where the synthetic materials of her bra burned the hottest) will require skin grafts, but the procedure was postponed to allow as much natural healing as possible. She complained about headaches and sleeplessness, which are medicated as needed.

What moved me the most is that she complained she still cannot hug or kiss her 2-yr old daughter Sairung (2 aka “Ice”) when she visits because of the pain in her arms and the fear the little girl still has of her because of her facial burns.

I’m not a psychiatrist but this sounds a lot like post-traumatic stress to me, probably in all the victims of this attack, either by fire or shock (K Saijai, her mother K Pennee and the daughter).

It was hard to keep a dry eye, but I tried to cheer K Saijai up as well as I could. I told her in my opinion she had stood up to a threat to her daughter like a lioness mother to a hyena. Her sacrifice had helped to take a criminally insane person off the most popular beach on Phuket.

She was happy to receive me and reported that a few others have shown up with gifts and best wishes. She was quite touched by the collection money, especially the small change people in local stores had put into the collection cans, some of them school children and low paid staff. I read the good wishes to her that overseas givers had included in their e-mails to SaijaiAid@yahoo.com via https://www.moneybookers.com/app/?rid=2206130.

K. Saijai told me that the doctors now predict at least another month in the hospital (maybe two, the nurses say) and a long time of recovery with no work on the beach foreseeable for quite some time.

The donations handed over to Saijai’s family are now at THB 12,100.-, certainly not enough but gratefully accepted for immediate needs.

I am in the process of setting up a small trust fund with the help of an anonymous ferang donor to make sure that at least their basic expenses are covered for the next year or two. Hopefully we all can do better than that and assure both mother and child a secure future. It would be a shame and “bad Karma” for us all if they ended up homeless and destitute.

As I left the husband showed up to keep her company. K. Saijai admonished me to “drive slowly” so I would not end up like her.

Repeat: These are the Chalong businesses who have graciously permitted the placement of collection cans: Mail Box Internet Café, just off the Chalong traffic circle on Chalong Pier Rd, left. Sunee Sauna and Massage, 100 further west, left. Joy Market, near Land & House, Chaofa Rd E Chalong Gym, near Land & House, Chaofa Rd E Used Book Store, 500 m north of there, opposite turn-off to Zoo/Aquarium. BTW: These local family businesses are highly recommended anyway. Give them your trade. Maybe people in other areas of Phuket can set up some collection cans also. People overseas or out of town can send any amount of money, large or small, to SaijaiAid@yahoo.com securely and discreetly via https://www.moneybookers.com/app/?rid=2206130 by credit/debit card, bank transfer, cash deposit and even mobile phone. Moneybookers operates worldwide, practically without fees (unlike PayPal and Western Union who’s fees are prohibitive) and actually pays “brownie points” for each transaction which also will go to the beneficiaries 100%. They are based in London and Munich (a branch of Commerzbank). Everybody who donates THB 400 (about EUR/USD 12.- ) or more gets a free 4-handed one hour Thai Nuad massage (aka Thai Yoga) on Patong Beach as soon as Khun Saijai has recovered!