Life is looking a bit brighter for bed-ridden Surin man who likely is the world's tallest living person, after both individuals and organisations came to the aid of his ill, impoverished family.
A recent story on 269cm-tall Pornchai Saosri inspired donations of cash and medical assistance for the 26-year-old who suffers from gigantism, mother Woen Saosri said Tuesday.
Pornchai said in late September that he would like to have an electric bed and some money to help repay his mother's debts.
Mrs Woen, 56, said in her uncompleted, one-storey concrete house in Prasat district that after reports on her family's situation people called and donated 200 to 20,000 baht each.
The donations made to her Bangkok Bank account number 462-075771-8 amounted to about 110,000 baht and she withdrew 50,000 baht to reclaim her land title deed from a loan shark.
In addition, Ramathibodi Hospital in Bangkok would deliver a motorised bed to replace a steel bed that is two metres wide and 4.5 metres long.
Mrs Woen said that assistance really let her family survive as it was poor. She has diabetes and hypertension, her 60-year-old husband suffers side effects from pesticides he used in his small paddy field and their 15-year-old granddaughter was blind in one eye due to optic-nerve disease.
Pornchai Saosri as pictured at home on Sept 28. (Photo by Nopparat Kingkaew)
Her son is a patient at Ramathibodi. Mrs Woen said each bill had previously shocked her, including one for 70,000 baht.
As she once told hospital staff she could not afford it, officials of the Crown Property Bureau and the Princess Mother's Medical Volunteer Foundation contacted her and offered help and finally His Majesty the King accepted her son and granddaughter as royally sponsored patients.
"Without the help, I could not imagine how my son and granddaughter would live. Each bill is very expensive and I was always shocked. I do not know how to return the favours in this life. I am highly grateful. They save our life and let us be reborn," Mrs Woen said.
Groups of motorcycle owners in Surin also were raising donations for her son and will deliver them on Oct 25.
However, Mrs Woen said by phone late Tuesday that her son had difficulty breathing and a high fever. He has been rushed to Prasat Hospital.
The Guinness Book of World Records lists a Turkish man, Sultan Kosen, 32, as the world's tallest living man, giving his height as 251cm.