Hospital loses baby — not
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| Piyarat Puibuakor and her husband, Panya Kankeow |
Piyarat Puibuakor, aged 37, and her husband, Panya Kankeow, 29, complained to Chon Buri police on Dec 7 claiming Chon Buri hospital had lost their baby daughter, after the newborn was supposedly transferred to its care on Oct 11.
They said a nurse from the hospital, who kept in touch throughout the two months in which the little girl was receiving care, had called them on Dec 2 to pick up the child, as she was ready to go home.
Ms Piyarat claimed she gave birth at the province’s Banglamung hospital on Oct 11 but the child, who had ingested amniotic fluid, was weak and infirm, and had to be transferred to Chon Buri hospital’s ICU department. She saw the child for just 10 minutes, she claimed, before nurses took her away.
So began an elaborate deception in which Ms Piyarat managed to con her husband, family and friends into thinking they were about to start a family. In fact, Ms Piyarat suffered a miscarriage two months into her pregnancy, but did not tell her husband.
She carried on pretending she was still pregnant, however, even signing up for prenatal care at Banglamung hospital, and taking her husband along to see a doctor the day before she supposedly gave birth alone.
“I told him I was pregnant but he showed no interest, so I carried on working and drinking heavily, which may have led to the miscarriage,” she told police later when the truth of the saga came out.
After losing the child she felt too guilty to tell her husband, as she was worried he would leave her. Instead, she decided to make up the story, though she admitted later she did not think it would escalate to the extent of a police complaint.
She also received nationwide media coverage, first of her complaint alleging the baby had been lost, and later the same day, her confession that she had “conned the world”, as the media put it.
Ms Piyarat was due to give birth, she told her husband, on Oct 10. The same day, accompanied by Mr Panya, she went to see a doctor at Banglamung hospital.
As she had yet to enter labour she went into his room alone. She re-emerged with a hospital gown saying the doctor had given her an injection to speed up delivery. Her husband, Mr Panya, thought nothing of it. Ms Piyarat said she found the gown in the doctor’s room and presented it to boost the story’s credibility.
The next night at midnight she left home alone, claiming labour had begun.
Later she told her husband she had given birth and had seen their newborn for just 10 minutes before nurses whisked the child away. She said the baby was transferred to Chon Buri hospital, though she did not accompany the child.
For the next two months, the couple received updates on the child’s condition by phone. While the callers claimed to be nurses or doctors, who assured them the child was doing well, Ms Piyarat admitted later she had actually friends call and impersonate them.
In the whole two months the child was receiving care, Mr Panya did not visit the hospital to see his child. He said that when the hospital finally called to say they could pick up the child, he was relieved, as he would finally get to see her face. He drove his motorcycle 60km to the hospital hoping to pick up the child.
After his wife said she gave birth, he had called his mother, who travelled from her home in Kamphaeng Phet province to look after Ms Piyarat.
Her care included the post-partum healing process of “lying by the fire”, even though Ms Piyarat, in fact, had suffered no wounds or stretching in childbirth. Meanwhile, his family bought toys and clothes for the child in anticipation of her homecoming.
On the day they went to pick up the child, a staff member at Chon Buri hospital claimed his paperwork was not yet in order and asked him to wait. By Dec 4, still having not seen his child, Mr Panya said he could no longer get hold of the staff who once provided updates on the child’s condition over the phone.
On Dec 7 he contacted the hospital’s paediatric department, where staff said they had no record of having received the baby. His family, having decided the hospital had lost the child but was trying to cover it up, laid a complaint with Chon Buri police.
Police contacted staff at both hospitals and unsurprisingly, turned up nothing.
At that stage Ms Piyarat was still going along with the story she had fabricated. She accompanied her husband and mother-in-law to the station to lay their complaint. In news clips, she was seen telling reporters she was missing her child. She also countered police when they insisted no records could be found at the hospitals concerned.
Police, however, noticed that Ms Piyarat appeared to be hiding something. Starting to get suspicious, they challenged her to present paperwork showing she had given birth, and ultrasounds taken of her unborn child.
When Ms Piyarat could produce neither, they submitted her to four hours of gruelling questioning, some of which was released to the media. Here, police openly accused her of lying.
Finally she admitted making up the saga, to the dismay of her baffled husband and mother-in-law, who are shown remonstrating with her and holding their heads in their hands in despair.
“Why didn’t you just say you lost the child?” Mr Panya asked his wife. “If you had told the truth from the beginning, this saga would never have come this far,” he said.
His mother, meanwhile, known as Neuk in the media, said Ms Piyarat had brought shame on the family.
Ms Piyarat now faces a criminal charge for giving misleading evidence. The penalty is a fine of up to 1,000 baht or jail of up to six months. After being charged she was put in a court cell until her family had arranged bail.
Speaking to the media, Neuk said she could not accept Ms Piyarat’s deception, and had asked her son to leave her.
“After seeing my granddaughter’s face for the first time, I was prepared to arrange a wedding for him,” she said in tears.
Deputy Chon Buri police superintendent, Pol Lt Col Chamnan Trinetr, urged families to talk out such problems themselves. “If people give false evidence and it ends up in public documents, they will have to be prosecuted,” he said.
Netizens, who likened the bizarre saga to a Thai soap opera, asked how Ms Piyarat could con her family so successfully. “She had no baby bump, but they kept believing her,” one said.
Home is just a call away
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| Damrong Siriwat and his wife, Thongmai Siriwat |
Damrong Siriwat, 62, and his wife, Thongmai Siriwat, 59, from Yang Talat district in Kalasin, complained to the province’s Na Kung police last week that a man impersonating their youngest son had called on Nov 27 asking them to transfer 20,000 baht.
He claimed police had arrested him for possession of five methamphetamine pills, which were left with him by a friend, and were trying to beat a confession out of him. “if you don’t transfer the money they will put me in prison straight away,” the man told them.
He called both Mr Damrong and Ms Thongmai on an unknown number asking for help and leaving his bank account details.
The caller, the couple said, sounded remarkably like their son, who lives in Chon Buri. He knew their personal details, so much so he did not arouse suspicions. They contacted a relative, asking them to transfer the funds over the phone to the bank account provided.
Some time later the man called back asking them to top up his phone credit by 300 baht. The Siriwats agreed but, not knowing which phone network their son used, called his number, only to get their real son on the line. He denied asking them for the top-up or the cash transfer. The couple realised they had been duped but their relative had already transferred the money.
They laid a complaint with police, who said inquiries showed the bank account was held in the name of two people with the same first and second names in Ubon Ratchathani. They are also liaising with the phone company to find out who owns the number used to call them.
Police, who say the cash was transferred onwards from the destination account within 20 minutes of being received, suspect the caller is part of a gang preying on elderly folk. However, they have not ruled out the possibility the couple was also known to the offenders. Inquiries are continuing.
Mali saved from hell pit
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| Nong Mali |
Nong Mali, aged about one year, quickly entered Thai hearts after news footage emerged of the dog lying on its side, immobilised in a pit of hot bitumen, sinking slowly and unable to extricate itself.
Supatra Baisree, a worker at the bitumen factory in Muang district, said she was undoing a nut on a soil compactor on Dec 6 when she heard a dog crying. She followed the sound and found Mali, who was panting heavily as the bitumen into which it had fallen slowly pulled it under.
Ms Supatra said she called staff from a rescue foundation for help, who in a two-hour operation managed to extract the dog with a backhoe, scooping it out of the pit and lowering it into a blanket. From there, rescue workers and local livestock office staff applied benzine oil to wipe the bitumen off its body.
Later the dog’s owner, Supawadee Kaenjack, 39, who lives nearby, took reporters to visit the dog, which is recovering in a pen. She said the bitumen pit had now been filled in to prevent such accidents happening again.
Mali, she said, was hit by a vehicle in front of their home recently and needed its rear left leg amputated. Netizens had helped chip in for the cost of the operation after she alerted a FB club for looking after dogs.
Ten days later, Mali fell into the pit. Once a lively, excitable dog, and friendly to anyone who approached, she said Mali was now sad and subdued, and would not let anyone but her owner touch her for the time being.
She thanked the rescue foundation for its help, and netizens for offering advice on how to remove the bitumen. She had taken the dog to the vet, who said Mali would recover in time.
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