Swiss Man Found Dead At Guest House On Jomtien Beach

[Rimmer]

Swiss man found dead at Guest House on Jomtien Beach

PATTAYA:--Staff at a guest house on Jomtien Beach discovered the body of a Swiss resident on Wednesday afternoon.

The manager of the Casa Viva Inn Guest House was concerned for the man, who had not been seen for 2 days and after entering the room, found the body of Mr. Jurgen Andreas Thommen aged 54. The Police and rescue services were called and it was confirmed by officers there were no signs of foul play.

Large amounts of medication were seen around the room leading Police to assume an existing medical condition may have caused his demise. Mr. Thommen had rented the room for a year and was known as a quiet man who rarely had friends come to his room.

Full story:http://www.pattayaone.net/pattaya-news/56621/swiss-man-dead-guest-house-jomtien-beach/

-- Pattaya One 2012-06-07

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[thaikahuna]

Large amounts of medication were seen around the room leading Police to assume an existing medical condition may have caused his demise.

Isn't that why they have a coroner's hospital so the police don't have to ASSUME, they can find out for sure...???

[psmiller]

Large amounts of medication were seen around the room leading Police to assume an existing medical condition may have caused his demise.

Isn't that why they have a coroner's hospital so the police don't have to ASSUME, they can find out for sure...???

Agreed, but it is Thailand and he was only found yesterday.

[w11guy]

Large amounts of medication were seen around the room leading Police to assume an existing medical condition may have caused his demise.

Isn't that why they have a coroner's hospital so the police don't have to ASSUME, they can find out for sure...???

The police made an initial assessment and then the coroner will decide. It's what happens in other countries, including the US and UK. If the police hadn't said anything then people on here would have been complaining that the police weren't doing their job. It's impossible to please many TV members.

Sound like you need to get a life.

[Jingthing]

What medications? For hay fever perhaps? Large amounts? What does that mean? One months supply for a typical chronic condition or twenty different meds for acute conditions? Perhaps to these crack Private Eyes anything more than one blister pack is a huge stash. People go to the docs here with a cold and get sent home with five different pills. I agree the mention of medications is typical local yellow journalism. It is meaningless without more details and an ACTUAL investigation.

Edited June 7, 2012 by Jingthing

[Swiss1960]

What medications? For hay fever perhaps? Large amounts? What does that mean? One months supply for a typical chronic condition or twenty different meds for acute conditions? Perhaps to these crack Private Eyes anything more than one blister pack is a huge stash. People go to the docs here with a cold and get sent home with five different pills. I agree the mention of medications is typical local yellow journalism. It is meaningless without more details and an ACTUAL investigation.

Is'nt it bad enough that they put the name of this poor chap in the news? Should they now also list all the medicaments and post a copy of the medical records just in order to satisfy some TV members that their REALLY was no foul play and that REALLY the guy probably died of his illness??

[Jingthing]

What medications? For hay fever perhaps? Large amounts? What does that mean? One months supply for a typical chronic condition or twenty different meds for acute conditions? Perhaps to these crack Private Eyes anything more than one blister pack is a huge stash. People go to the docs here with a cold and get sent home with five different pills. I agree the mention of medications is typical local yellow journalism. It is meaningless without more details and an ACTUAL investigation.

Is'nt it bad enough that they put the name of this poor chap in the news? Should they now also list all the medicaments and post a copy of the medical records just in order to satisfy some TV members that their REALLY was no foul play and that REALLY the guy probably died of his illness??

I understand your emotion but based on the news report there actually is no evidence (that we know about) that he died of an illness related in any way to the medications he was taking. Think about it.

As far as the press report. In a case like this I think a more ethical report would be to say he was found dead and the death appears to be caused by natural causes.

Edited June 8, 2012 by Jingthing

[NanLaew]

What medications? For hay fever perhaps? Large amounts? What does that mean? One months supply for a typical chronic condition or twenty different meds for acute conditions? Perhaps to these crack Private Eyes anything more than one blister pack is a huge stash. People go to the docs here with a cold and get sent home with five different pills. I agree the mention of medications is typical local yellow journalism. It is meaningless without more details and an ACTUAL investigation.

Is'nt it bad enough that they put the name of this poor chap in the news? Should they now also list all the medicaments and post a copy of the medical records just in order to satisfy some TV members that their REALLY was no foul play and that REALLY the guy probably died of his illness??

I understand your emotion but based on the news report there actually is no evidence (that we know about) that he died of an illness related in any way to the medications he was taking. Think about it.

As far as the press report. In a case like this I think a more ethical report would be to say he was found dead and the death appears to be caused by natural causes.

'... ethical report....'

Where are we again?

[Jingthing]

Yes, here we go again because the press always does this when medications are found this way. When the press reports this, we are unethically invited to conclude this death was caused by a disease that the medications were for. That is completely unscientific and poor journalism as well.

Here is a simple example to show my point. Someone is found dead and has six months supply of thyroid hormone supplements (a lifetime condition) found in the room. They die of an aneurysm totally unrelated to the well treated thyroid condition. The"press" prints: Large amounts of medication were seen around the room leading Police to assume an existing medical condition may have caused his demise.

Edited June 8, 2012 by Jingthing

[FarangKenStine]

Someone died? In a room? Stop da presses!

[blueshark]

Large amounts of medication were seen around the room leading Police to assume an existing medical condition may have caused his demise.

Isn't that why they have a coroner's hospital so the police don't have to ASSUME, they can find out for sure...???

The police made an initial assessment and then the coroner will decide. It's what happens in other countries, including the US and UK. If the police hadn't said anything then people on here would have been complaining that the police weren't doing their job. It's impossible to please many TV members.

Sound like you need to get a life.

Sounds like you need to get into reality.

The majority of Police here in Thailand have no training what so ever when dealing with the death of any human. They are not paid enough to care. If they can find the easy option to ensure it all blows over then that’s the route they will take. My father was in the British police force for years and they would never, never jump to any conclusions about the death of an individual, just to ease the publics interest. Unfortunately Thailand just doesn’t have the capability to carry out detailed forensic, biological tests which can be used as official evidence to determine foul play or not. It’s safe to say that the Thai police do not carry out the same procedures as the UK and US forces. You are talking from your bar table on that one.

If you do your research you will find hundreds of foreign nationals that have died in Thailand under suspicious circumstances have never been given the proper time or attention they deserve.

That’s a risk that we all have when we live in Third World countries. Its nuts to say they have the same system as the UK. Many people would argue otherwise. Do some research before making wild inaccurate statements.

[Jingthing]

Agree with most of that, but Thailand DOES have the capability to do world class death investigation work but that doesn't mean that capability is applied widely to non-famous people. Yes, in general, the police are not paid enough to care.

As far as respect to this particular recent dead person (or any who receive such shoddy press reports) it is not meant to be disrespectful to suggest that unfounded conclusions have been jumped to.

Edited June 8, 2012 by Jingthing

[tropo]

Yes, here we go again because the press always does this when medications are found this way. When the press reports this, we are unethically invited to conclude this death was caused by a disease that the medications were for. That is completely unscientific and poor journalism as well.

Here is a simple example to show my point. Someone is found dead and has six months supply of thyroid hormone supplements (a lifetime condition) found in the room. They die of an aneurysm totally unrelated to the well treated thyroid condition. The"press" prints: Large amounts of medication were seen around the room leading Police to assume an existing medical condition may have caused his demise.

I really can't understand why this bothers you so much. In the example you gave the words "assume" and "may have" should have been sufficient to prevent anyone getting upset.

If there is a lot of medication strewn around the room of a newly deceased person, the assumption has a very good chance of being correct.

Your suggestion that a 54 year old may have died of natural causes is just silly. What is a "natural cause"? Does anyone die from whatever they are? I don't think so.

Edited June 8, 2012 by tropo

[Jingthing]

I meant natural causes to mean he wasn't the victim of violence. A medical event can be a natural cause. However, I get your point that natural causes can be an ambiguous phrase. So probably better to just say: no sign of violence or break in; the medical cause of death to be investigated.

As far as the age of the person, the local police/press would do the same thing if the person was age 20 or age 90. Lazily linking found medications with the death when they really have NO IDEA.

Edited June 8, 2012 by Jingthing

[NanLaew]

Agreed that the police here are expected to be the font of knowledge when the average Thai hack reporter needs leading by the nose and virtually told what to write. Hence, the standard line in the UK where "the Police are looking into it" suffices for the news headlines over there. However, here in Thailand where pictures of dead, bloated bodies accompany most news items of this ilk, then the reporter needs to have something more meaty than "the Police are looking into it." Yes, the police have no clue whether the drugs at the scene were prescription for something unrelated or even belonged to the deceased but that does not matter. In a similar vein, we have the suspect pedophiles who invariably have porn collections, sex aids and the always damning SEXUAL LUBRICANT being discovered at their place of arrest as if that in itself is proof of pedophilia.

I am pretty blase about what passes for news, any news here in LOS. It's all so peurile, mostly self-serving and astonishingly parochial. It reminds me of the alleged headline in the Aberdeen Press & Journal on the morning after the sinking of the Titanic where their front page proclaimed, "Local lass drowns." closely followed by the story of the Elgin to Laurencekirk 'tattie train' being derailed at Inverurie.

Despite living here, I think one should be much more concerned about say... the peril of the Euro and if the Greeks can get a bailout, dodge the bullet and still avoid paying their taxes. When that becomes all too depressing, I head down WS and catch the back stage action at 'Iron'.

PS. Isn't it about time someone posted the obligatory RIP ?

Edited June 8, 2012 by NanLaew

[pacovl46]

Large amounts of medication were seen around the room leading Police to assume an existing medical condition may have caused his demise.

Isn't that why they have a coroner's hospital so the police don't have to ASSUME, they can find out for sure...???

Man, this is an initial statement saying they found no signs of foul play. The keywords are "may have caused". Of course there will be an autopsy.