Kittipat Bodiraat or Aomsin is the son of Khun Mae Uay Bodiraat, 38 years old, who sells sticky rice with shredded pork in front of a 7-Eleven store in Khirimat District, Sukhothai Province. Her mother told her that her father left her when she was only 1 month old. While she was pregnant, she worked in construction and as a laundry worker in Bangkok. When she got pregnant, she went to the health center in Samut Prakan Province to register for pregnancy. However, when she was about to give birth, she traveled back to Khirimat District, Sukhothai Province to give birth because that was where her grandmother and new husband lived, as well as her relatives, so that she would have someone to help take care of her.

The mother told her that she gave birth at Khirimat Hospital. When she was born, the doctor found that she was a special child, Down syndrome, and she also had a congenital heart defect. Khirimat Hospital therefore sent her to Phra Phutthachin Hospital for further treatment. But my mother took my daughter to see a doctor only once and then stopped because she had no money. Every time she had to travel to see the doctor, she had to rent a car for 2,000 baht each time. So my mother didn’t take my daughter to get checked up and was unable to get treatment.

Until my mother’s older sister invited my mother to come live with her in Samut Prakan Province when my daughter Omsin was 8 months old. My mother took her to get treatment and transferred her medical rights to Samut Prakan for convenience. After that, the doctor transferred my daughter to be treated at the Children’s Hospital and took her to get a disabled person card.

But 2-3 years ago, my nephew, my sister’s son, came back to live at my sister’s house. So my mother had to move out and took my daughter Omsin back to live with my stepfather again. At first, when she went back to live in Khiri Mat District, my mother built a hut on my stepfather’s land and sold sticky rice with shredded pork according to the recipe she got from her older sister when she helped him sell it when he was still in Samut Prakan. But when my stepfather passed away, his relatives chased him out and made him move somewhere else. The mother had to take Omsin to find a place to rent to find a new place to live until a kind person donated money to her so she could buy a place to build her own house and continue her career as a seller of sticky rice with shredded pork.

But the mother still brought Omsin to the children’s hospital for regular checkups until the children’s hospital contacted the foundation to support heart surgery for children to operate on Omsin. The surgery was performed at Rajavithi Hospital on January 25, 2019. The doctor performed surgery to correct various abnormalities and installed a pacemaker for Omsin. The mother told us that before the surgery, Omsin was in very bad condition. She could only walk 2-3 steps before getting tired. Her hands and feet were blue, her mouth was green, she ate very little, and her body was small. But after the surgery, her hands, feet, and mouth were clearly pink, very different from before the surgery. She was more playful, did not get tired easily, and ate better.