Video: Por Tek Tung - The Thai Body Snatchers

[Plus]

From today's Bangkok Post

Patient dies as rescuers fight over who gets to treat him

...

The two rescue units fought over who was to deliver a patient suffering from breathing difficulties to a hospital.

The fight broke out when the state emergency team told the private rescue unit to back off so they could hook the patient up to a respiratory machine.

The private rescue volunteers refused to move and tried to disrupt the state emergency unit's operation. One of the hospital's emergency staff was also beaten. The Samut Prakan hospital emergency team eventually managed to move the patient to their car but it was too late. The patient died on the way to the hospital. ...

http://www.bangkokpost.com/News/28Mar2007_news15.php

[sriracha john]

Separate thread begun yesterday:

Patient Dies As Rescuers Fight Over Who Gets To Treat Him, horrendous state of affairs with ambulance services

[Plus]

It should really belong in THIS thread, don't you think?

It contains a lot of pro- and against rescue service arguments that put this latest case in better perspective.

[Tony Clifton]

Will happen as long as governments wash their hands of being involved in providing adequate services such as ambulance and police patrols.

Health services are not a competitive sport.

[Golfja]

In Metropolitan Bangkok where accident cases outnumbers the emergency services that the city can speedily handled, these voluntary services supplement this shortage. To some this is for a good cause.

Actually, there is no functioning city EMS service in Bangkok. The city service that the Ministry of Health has introduced a few years ago is not working, and partly consists of volonteers as well, more often than not volonteers that have been thrown out of the two foundations for misdeeds such as thefts, being drunk on duty, etc.

EMS system in Thailand begain in 1994 in Khon Kaen and Bangkok. In Bangkok, one system is run by Vachira hospital called SMART (Surgico-Medical Ambulance and Rescue Team), another one in Rajavithi hospital called Narenthorn. These 2 system has some differences in their initiative, the SMART is primarily focus on trauma patient and has their own first responder volunteers who regulary request ambulance assistant when they see accident. Narenthorn doesn't has volunteer, focus both trauma and medical emergecies, but it rely on other authorities and individuals to request ambulance from it. Those are pilot projects, not the centralized system, back to that time i still remember these 2 system running to the same accident scene and helping each other.

The ministry of public health kicked off its EMS project in 2003, each province must has centralized EMS system that includes registering EMS units, training, funding, regulation, protocols, specification, etc. For an example, my EMS center at Rajavithi usually response 3-6 calls per day, rarely leave base later than 2 minutes and it's mandatory to include 1 paramedic nurse, 2 trained (minimum 110 hours) EMTs plus additional medical doctor (usually residense MD in emergency medicine) and it's a free service, just like any EMS system running throughout Thailand now.

Right now each province has 1 system of its own. For funding we get reimbursement from health authority, 1,000 baht for ALS ambulance, 500 baht for BLS ambulance. In Bangkok, Erawan center is the command and control center, right now handle about 40 BLS calls and 20 ALS calls per day.

For EMS system in Thailand, we must keep pace with communities, since there's nothing is better than letting the community learn first-aid, and if it's beyond their capabilities, learn how and when to call for ambulance.

Please see my other post for more info http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=163351

[sriracha john]

Thank you for correcting the information with your factual and honest post.

[bobbydebit]

My son was 'picked up' by this organisation after being seriously hurt in a motorcyle accident. By the time he reached the hospital, his shoes, wallet, watch and gold chain had all dissappeared. This left the hospital unable to contact me until he was in a fit condition to communicate. This took three days.

When they come scrounging to my door for money they get a very short two word anser. **** off!

Sorry to hear what happened to your son.

But, the ones who committed the theft might not have been the Por Teck Tueng volonteers, could have been bystanders who arrived at the scene first, or, if happened in the suburbs, fake rescue teams.

The Por Teck Tueng does not scrounge for money at people's homes, the volonteers are strictly forbidden to ask for donations. Donations are made directly in the headquarters, or during their festivals. The donations are not given to the volonteers, neither in money nor in equippment.

The groups you see begging at people's homes (sometimes even with a smelly corpse in their trucks) are fake groups, that have repeatadly been exposed on television as such.

Thanks for all the usefull info ColPat!

I have a couple questions for you if you don't mind.

I'm in the process of getting my Paramedic certification here in Vancouver Canada.

I have my EMR cert. (emergency medical responder), Which here, is basic life support, heart and stroke.

I am on a 1 year waitlist for finishing my training and I am really wanting to do volunteer work in the meantime.

Would it be out of the question to get on as a volunteer in Bangkok, being that I am a Farang?

I speak basic Thai, and would learn as much more as I possibly could before leaving.

Thanks for any info.

Cheers.

[sriracha john]

My son was 'picked up' by this organisation after being seriously hurt in a motorcyle accident. By the time he reached the hospital, his shoes, wallet, watch and gold chain had all dissappeared. This left the hospital unable to contact me until he was in a fit condition to communicate. This took three days.

When they come scrounging to my door for money they get a very short two word anser. **** off!

Sorry to hear what happened to your son.

But, the ones who committed the theft might not have been the Por Teck Tueng volonteers, could have been bystanders who arrived at the scene first, or, if happened in the suburbs, fake rescue teams.

The Por Teck Tueng does not scrounge for money at people's homes, the volonteers are strictly forbidden to ask for donations. Donations are made directly in the headquarters, or during their festivals. The donations are not given to the volonteers, neither in money nor in equippment.

The groups you see begging at people's homes (sometimes even with a smelly corpse in their trucks) are fake groups, that have repeatadly been exposed on television as such.

Thanks for all the usefull info ColPat!

I have a couple questions for you if you don't mind.

I'm in the process of getting my Paramedic certification here in Vancouver Canada.

I have my EMR cert. (emergency medical responder), Which here, is basic life support, heart and stroke.

I am on a 1 year waitlist for finishing my training and I am really wanting to do volunteer work in the meantime.

Would it be out of the question to get on as a volunteer in Bangkok, being that I am a Farang?

I speak basic Thai, and would learn as much more as I possibly could before leaving.

Thanks for any info.

Cheers.

ColPyat was banned from this forum for multiple occurences of a variety of offenses, so he will be unable to respond to your question...but if you wait a few days, perhaps one of his alternative ID's that he's reincarnated himself under might be able to.

In the interim, I would suggest sending a private message (PM) to

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Golfja-m56675.html

who is a real person.

Edited October 23, 2008 by sriracha john

[animatic]

Suzy I am REALLY sorry to hear about your son's travails.

I am thankfull so far I have not seen any of this BS on Samui.

There are multiple ambulance services, but they seem to work well together.

I have heard get in the wrong one and go to a hospital not of your choosing.

But if gravely injured take me ANYWHERE, even the government hospital if it's closest

to stablize, then move to a good hospital. And they seem to be pretty quick around here to.

Edited October 23, 2008 by animatic

[sriracha john]

Por Tek Tung - The Body Snatchers

Play video clip (Courtesy: Channel 4, UK)

(Windows Media Player)

Careering around Bangkok in battered pickup trucks, the organization's minimally trained members serve as doctor and hearse for accident victims

These are no dreamy-eyed do-gooders: Fistfights occasionally erupt when rival organizations try to tug bodies from the same road accident.

Mr. Niroot took part in one of the most famous confrontations, in which half a dozen body snatchers were hospitalized after fighting over a motorcyclist's body.

"It is very ugly fighting over a body, but I would do it again," Mr. Niroot said, describing how he split open a rival's head with a piece of wood after knives and a gun had been drawn.

To pass the time while waiting for an accident, Mr. Niroot recounts the bloodiest accidents of his career in horrific and unprintable detail. Death by motorcycle features prominently, as does the suicide of young people involving methamphetamines, an illegal drug Thais commonly called yaa baa, or crazy drug.

UPDATE....and now... Por Tek Tung is dealing yaa baa to buyers in prison...

Por Tek Tung Foundation's Volunteers Caught In Drug Trade

Police officers arrested a network of drug traders claiming that they were asked to distribute methamphetamine by prisoners, using an emergency rescue car to transfer drugs.

Volunteers from Por Tek Tung Foundation Pisitpon Ninlueng, along with eight other suspects, were arrested with 24,299 amphetamine pills and a 38-millimeter gun with 30 bullets.

All suspects admitted that they acted as a network, with Pisitpon claiming that he had received calls from a prisoner currently detained at Khaobin prison in Ratchaburi province. The inmate ordered Pisitpon to pick up methamphetamine pills from a main distributor, who has also been arrested by the police. Pisitpon then used one of his brother's Por Tek Tung Foundation cars to transfer the drugs.

Police officers filed initial charges for the possession and sale of methamphetamine and possession of guns and bullets without a licence, before sending them to the drug suppression police for further investigation.

-- Tan Network 2009-05-19

Edited May 19, 2009 by sriracha john

[sriracha john]

Additional exploits of the Por Tek Tung so-called "rescuers" are covered in the threads:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Ambulance-Wo...71.html&hl=

Ambulance Workers Shooting And Assaulting Each Other, turf war heats up

and

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Rescuers-See...40.html&hl=

Rescuers Seek Rescue From Other Rescuers, the state of Thailand's ambulance services

[sriracha john]

Police arrest a gang which allegedly had in possession and sold amphetamines in Nong Kham district, Bangkok on Monday. They used ambulances and vehicles of a private rescue foundation to smuggle the drugs.

The Nation

[Plus]

Sigh...

[sriracha john]

Por Tek Tung - The Body Snatchers

Play video clip (Courtesy: Channel 4, UK)

(Windows Media Player)

Careering around Bangkok in battered pickup trucks, the organization's minimally trained members serve as doctor and hearse for accident victims

These are no dreamy-eyed do-gooders: Fistfights occasionally erupt when rival organizations try to tug bodies from the same road accident.

Mr. Niroot took part in one of the most famous confrontations, in which half a dozen body snatchers were hospitalized after fighting over a motorcyclist's body.

"It is very ugly fighting over a body, but I would do it again," Mr. Niroot said, describing how he split open a rival's head with a piece of wood after knives and a gun had been drawn.

To pass the time while waiting for an accident, Mr. Niroot recounts the bloodiest accidents of his career in horrific and unprintable detail. Death by motorcycle features prominently, as does the suicide of young people involving methamphetamines, an illegal drug Thais commonly called yaa baa, or crazy drug.

UPDATE....and now... Por Tek Tung is dealing yaa baa to buyers in prison...

Por Tek Tung Foundation's Volunteers Caught In Drug Trade

Police officers arrested a network of drug traders claiming that they were asked to distribute methamphetamine by prisoners, using an emergency rescue car to transfer drugs.

Volunteers from Por Tek Tung Foundation Pisitpon Ninlueng, along with eight other suspects, were arrested with 24,299 amphetamine pills and a 38-millimeter gun with 30 bullets.

All suspects admitted that they acted as a network, with Pisitpon claiming that he had received calls from a prisoner currently detained at Khaobin prison in Ratchaburi province. The inmate ordered Pisitpon to pick up methamphetamine pills from a main distributor, who has also been arrested by the police. Pisitpon then used one of his brother's Por Tek Tung Foundation cars to transfer the drugs.

Police officers filed initial charges for the possession and sale of methamphetamine and possession of guns and bullets without a licence, before sending them to the drug suppression police for further investigation.

http://www.thailandoutlook.tv/' target="_blank">

And the crew that mans them...

Edited May 23, 2009 by sriracha john

[Plus]

What, no corpses stuffed with drugs?

At least the guys feel ashamed. There is hope.