Nong Phopthep or Nong Phop is the son of Mom Jintana Kaewchan, 35 years old, and Dad Somchat Na Chumhet, who are also rubber tappers. Currently, his parents have moved to rent a house in Trang Province to work as rubber tappers. His mother told us that she has 5 children in total, Nong Phop is the 3rd child, and all the other children are normal children, except for Nong Phop who has a congenital heart defect.

When Mom was pregnant with Nong Phop, Mom was in Betong District, Yala Province. Mom therefore registered her pregnancy at Betong Hospital, Yala Province, and went for checkups as scheduled. The doctor never informed her that Nong Phop had any abnormalities. After he was born, he was fine, so she took him back home to raise him as usual. He had normal symptoms, no different from other children.

Until Nong Phop was about 6 years and 8 months old, around October 2017, he started school as usual. One day, Nong Phop became sick, unwell, and had a high fever. No matter what she did, his fever would not go down. So, mom took Phop to the health center and got paracetamol, but his symptoms did not improve. The next day, mom took him to the Yan Ta Khao Hospital and got the same medicine again, but after taking the medicine, his symptoms did not improve. So, mom took him back to the health center again. The health center staff recommended that he go to the hospital again to get his blood drawn to find out what was wrong with him. When she went to the Yan Ta Khao Hospital again to get his blood drawn, mom noticed that Phop was breathing through his mouth. When she asked him, he said he was tired, but she never knew that he had heart disease because she had never been to the hospital. When she went to see the doctor, the doctor examined him and found that he had an abnormal heartbeat. So, the doctor sent him for an X-ray. After looking at the results, they found that he had congenital heart disease with a leaky heart valve. So, the Yan Ta Khao Hospital sent him to Trang Hospital for further treatment.

When she went to Trang Hospital, the doctor examined him and ordered him to be admitted that same day. The doctor suspected that he might have rheumatic fever. Nong Phop had to stay at Trang Hospital for 3 nights before the doctor allowed him to go home. About 2 weeks later, the doctor made an appointment for him to come back for another checkup. The doctor then sent him to Hat Yai Hospital for an echo. After the echo, it was found that Nong Phop had a hole in the septum of his heart. The doctor then made an appointment for him to follow up on his condition at both Trang Hospital and Hat Yai Hospital.

The doctor informed him that he needed to undergo surgery as soon as possible because the hole was 33 mm. The doctor then contacted Pediatric Cardiac Surgery Foundation to help him operate because if he had to wait in line at Hat Yai Hospital, he would have to wait about 1 year, which he probably couldn’t wait.

When the foundation received the information, they made an appointment for him to come back for a checkup at Rajavithi Hospital and sent him for an echo at the Children’s Hospital. It was found that the hole had increased in size to 36 mm. However, they still couldn’t perform surgery on Nong Phop right away because he had many cavities. Therefore, Nong Phop had to go back to treat the cavities and have 5 teeth extracted before he could perform surgery. Until May 7, 2018, the foundation called to invite him to come in for surgery. He came to Rajavithi Hospital on May 9 and had the surgery on May 11, 2018. Nong Phop stayed in the ICU for 2 days before being able to move to the ward. On May 19, Nong Phop was able to leave the hospital and go home. When he was about to leave the hospital, Nong Phop said, “I can breathe deeply now.” Nong Phop was happy to be able to go back to school as usual and to see his friends again like before.