Miss Wanpa Porpila or Nong Wai, aged 2 years and 9 months, is the daughter of Ms. Jenjira Sriboonruang, aged 25, and Master Pairoj Porpila, aged 30. Her parents work as ten-wheel truck drivers transporting goods.

Her mother told her that her parents originally lived in Na Kae District, Nakhon Phanom Province. Their family worked as rice farmers and lived with her grandfather. However, since the rice fields were on high ground, the water did not reach them, so the yield was low. Most of the rice they got was not enough to sell, so they kept it for themselves. However, the amount of rice was so small that it ran out in less than a year, so they had to buy rice to eat.

Mom and Dad have 3 children in total. The eldest is a normal 10-year-old child who studies in Nakhon Phanom with his grandfather. The second child is a child with slow development. He is currently 8 years old but has the same development as a 5-year-old child. While Nong Wai was pregnant, Mom registered for prenatal care at Ban Dong Inam Health Promoting Hospital, Phra Song Subdistrict, Na Kae District, Nakhon Phanom Province. The delivery was normal and natural, weighing 3,500 grams. Nong Wai is chubby and healthy. The doctor told her that Nong Wai had an abnormality or heart disease. When Nong Wai was about 1 month old, because her income was not enough, her father came down to work in Chonburi and brought Mom and Nong Wai with him. The other 2 children stayed with her grandfather in Nakhon Phanom. When Nong Wai was about 1 and a half months old, Mom suspected that Nong Wai had heart disease because she noticed that Nong Wai got tired easily, suckled less, and had a fast heartbeat. When she put her ear to listen to her heartbeat, she heard a hissing sound, which was not a normal heartbeat. Since Mom’s younger sister also had a heart defect, Mom suspected that Nong Wai had heart disease as well. However, since at that time she did not have much money, she did not dare to take her to see a doctor in Chonburi. Since her gold card was in Nakhon Phanom, her mother brought her back to see the doctor at Na Kae Hospital in Nakhon Phanom Province according to her rights.

The doctor found that she had a heart disease, but since there was no specialist, they could not examine her in detail to find out what kind of heart disease she had. Therefore, they sent her to Sakon Nakhon Hospital for further treatment since she was about 2 months old. The father of the doctor at Sakon Nakhon Hospital informed her that she had a congenital heart disease and needed to be treated with surgery, but she had to wait until she was older and weighed more before she could undergo surgery. They monitored her condition every 2-3 months until she was 1 year old. The doctor informed her that she had an appointment for surgery and would be sent to the Pediatric Cardiac Surgery Foundation, Heart Institute, Rajavithi Hospital. However, Wai had to postpone her surgery because the operating room at Rajavithi Hospital was closed for renovation at that time. When the operating room was open, the foundation contacted her mother, which happened to be when she had a cold or was not feeling well, so the surgery had to be postponed 2-3 times over a period of about 1 year.

Until Nong Wai came to have surgery on Tuesday, August 27, 2019. She was in the ICU for about 4 days before her symptoms improved and she was able to go up to the heart surgery ward. Before the surgery, her mother was very worried and expected that after the surgery, Nong Wai would have to stay in the hospital for 2-3 months. But after the actual surgery, she was in the hospital for only about 10 days before she became strong enough to go home. Before the surgery, Nong Wai was a skinny child who ate very little, only drank milk and barely ate any rice. She was small. But after the surgery, she was bright, cheerful, playful, and had significantly more energy.

Currently, her parents work as a ten-wheel truck driver transporting goods all over the country. After the surgery, they sent Nong Wai to stay with her grandmother in Nakhon Phanom, who lives in a village near her grandfather’s house where her two children live. Because her grandfather could not take care of her three grandchildren, he sent Nong Wai to stay with her grandmother instead. Her parents worked to earn money to send to her grandfather and grandmother to cover the expenses of their three children. Only once in a while did her parents get to visit their children. Because she had to drive to deliver things far away to the North, South, and Northeast, her mother hoped that one day she would be able to come back and be with the whole family and that Nong Wai would grow up healthy and live like a normal child.