Master Kritsana Chaloecherdtrakul or Nong Pom lives at 37/3 Moo 4, Hua Thanon Subdistrict, Tha Tako District, Nakhon Sawan Province. Nong Pom is the eldest of two siblings. He was born at Tha Tako Hospital, weighing 3,200 kilograms. At birth, he had a cleft lip, 6 fingers on each hand, and larger than normal feet. His fingers and toes had no nails. When he was born, the doctor who delivered him told his mother that he could cut off the extra finger, but he had to wait until he was about 2 years old. If he did, the child would be in a lot of pain because the extra finger had bone, not normal flesh. So, his mother decided not to do it because she felt sorry for her son. As for the cleft lip, it closed on its own when Nong Pom grew up, without surgery. When he was about 4 years old, Nong Pom got sick with a cold. He had symptoms of fatigue, blue lips, and blue fingertips. So, we took him to Tha Tako Hospital for a checkup. The doctor examined him and said that it was just a normal allergy, nothing serious, but the child had symptoms of fatigue. So, he was told to stay for 3 days and 2 nights and go home, but Nong Pom’s symptoms remained the same. It didn’t get any better, so my mother took me to a clinic in Nakhon Sawan province. The doctor examined me and did an X-ray and said that I had a heart septal defect and that the hole might close on its own without surgery. He gave me an injection and medicine to take at home. My symptoms gradually improved. So my mother asked to transfer Pom to Tha Tako Hospital because it was close to home. However, the doctor at Tha Tako Hospital insisted that the child had allergies and not heart disease, and they didn’t treat him. When the medicine ran out, Pom started having symptoms again, so my mother decided to take him to the Nakhon Sawan clinic for treatment. They continued to treat him for about a year before stopping the treatment because they couldn’t afford the cost of treatment and medicine. When Pom was 9 years old, he got sick and had the same symptoms. So my mother took him to Tha Tako Hospital because the gold card provided free treatment. She didn’t have the money to go back to the old hospital. At Tha Tako Hospital, Pom met a new doctor who examined him and said that the child had a heart defect. He would be sent to Nakhon Sawan Hospital because it was a large hospital with complete equipment. Nakhon Sawan Hospital said that Pom had heart disease and needed surgery. So they sent him to the Children’s Hospital for treatment. The Children’s Hospital said that Pom had a heart valve defect and recommended surgery, but they had to wait in line. And made an appointment for check-ups every 3 months, gave medicine to take, treated at the children’s hospital for about 2 years, Nong Pom had surgery on December 6, 2003. After the surgery, the mother said that Nong Pom’s condition was much better than before, not tired. The mother said that she was very happy that her child had heart surgery in the foundation’s project. Her child will have a new life like a normal child, even though her child has other inferiority complexes.

