NONTHABURI: An elderly security guard infected with Covid-19 and waiting for a hospital bed hanged himself at his room in Bang Bua Thong district on Thursday morning.
Chao Singtor, 73, was found dead on the balcony of his fourth-floor room in the seven-storey Sombat Buri Condo building in tambon Bang Bua Thong.
He was found by a public health volunteer delivering meals around 9am on Thursday, Pol Lt Col Akkharapol Banchong, deputy investigation chief at Bang Bua Thong police station, said.
A nylon rope was tied around his neck and the other end was fastened to a window frame. He was wearing only brown pants, and was kneeling .
His son Chalee Singtor, 43, said his father phoned him on July 15 and said he had no energy and asked him to bring some food. He rushed to his father’s room.
At the time, he was not aware that his father was ill with the virus. His father later went to see a doctor at a hospital, where he tested positive for Covid-19.
Mr Chalee said he had sought help from several senior people to find a hospital bed for his father. They promised to help, but his father was still restricted to his room.
On Wednesday, his father phoned him and said he could not stand it anymore. He had breathing difficulties and was suffering from exhaustion.
He told his father to hang in there as he was following up a lead on a hospital bed.
On Thursday morning, a public health volunteer who took food to his father phoned and said Chao was dead, he had hanged himself, Mr Chalee recounted sadly.
The health volunteer, Parisa Phuwanartsupakit, 51, said Chao was a security guard at Sombat Buri Condo. He had fallen ill after catching Covid-19 and sought her help in getting into a field hospital. However, there were long queues for beds due to the high number of Covid-19 patients.
What she could do was provide him with three meals a day. She saw him on Wednesday evening, when she delivered a bag of rice to his room door.
On Thursday morning, another security guard at the condo told her that Chao could not be contacted. She went to his room and asked a staffer to bring a duplicate key to open the locked door. She found him dead on the balcony
She called on authorities to look into the plight being faced by so many infected people.
She asked why so many Thais were not getting access to hospital beds while infected migrant workers at big factories had hospital beds.