A (British) friend of mine had a stroke two years ago. He is
serving time in a prison in Bangkok, where, as you can imagine,
health services aren't exactly the best around. In his last letter
he sent me a detailed account of his stroke. I would be very
grateful indded if someone could give me some advice and/or
suggest the name and address of a good neurologist in
Bangkok who speaks English. What follows is taken from my
friend's last letter:
On 5 May 1999 I woke up, and straight away, apart from a severe headache,
found my left side (head to toes) was dead (no feeling). A fellow prisoner
helped me out of the cell, and fortunately we had a prisoner here who
outside had been a famous surgeon (a Thai man, a very famous murder case
here. He examined me, and got a guard to run out for some drugs for me. I
remember (for info only) that my blood pressure was 240/180 at that time.
That night another prisoner wrote a letter for me to the Embassy. 2 days
later a friend came to see me, left cash for me to buy further medicines
and phoned the Embassy. I was ignored. The friend who phoned was told they
were "very busy" and would call "when they had time". I wrote again on 12
May. You see, there is no prison doctor. After about 2 weeks I was walking
unaided, a bit frail but my left eye had deteriorated a lot and there was
numbness down my left side, especially face. June, July went by. No visit.
No doctor, but the pills the Thai prisoner got me were ok and now my blood
pressure was 160/110 or thereabouts. Previously, prior to the stroke it
was 110/70 max. Finally on 10 August the Embassy turned up. (In fact my
daughter in July received an e-mail from the Embassy which said they'd
seen me and I was "fine"). A total lie. They never came to see anyone,
let alone me. Anyhow, on 10 August I was told "you look unwell" by the
consul. "Oh, what's wrong? I remember a letter but I've forgotten what it
was". So I told him. "Oh, we'll get a doctor to examine you". Now on 20
SEPTEMBER 1999 a doctor did arrive. He's called Peter Morley (Australian).
He's a quack. I believe that day my pressure was 180/128 so he prescribed
some medication. It was also clear I had asthma, and had received some
medicines + inhaler (ventolin). In January 2000 I finally received this
quack's prescription. Well, it brought my blood pressure down but aggravated
my asthma. The Thai doctor told me NOT to take the tablets as it clearly
stated "NOT for asthma patients". The quack returned in March 2000 and
changed 1 of the tablets. Then in July 2000 'out of the blue' I was
examined by an outside doctor appointed by the Thais. This guy gave me a
proper examination. He even used a stethoscope. Morley never used one. He
changed my prescription totally. Even the ventolin inhaler, and I must
confess I feel half OK now. I got glasses (left eye: 3, right eye: plain
glass 20/20). I now have as follows: Enaril (5 mg) 2 per day, Prendil (5
mg) 2 per day, Aspirin (60 mg) 1 per day. For asthma: Bambed (10 mg),
Theo-DW (?, 300 mg), clarilyne (10 mg) as required, Berodural inhaler
as required."