Hospital admittance and visa renewal?

[ed strong]

I was approached by a Hua Hin Lawyer / accounting firm to assist with an English lady (Jane) who had been admitted to the intensive care unit in Bangkok hospital Hua Hin.

 

Jane had money in the UK but the hospital bill needed paying and she only had about 10,000 THB in Thailand right then and she didn't have Internet banking etc and it was unknown how long she would be in hospital. I was called in to help transfer the money from UK - Thailand and also discuss with her insurance company regarding her entitlements.

 

When I arrived at the hospital later that day her lawyer / accountant was getting Jane to sign her name on  all her deeds and documents that related to her condo in Hua hin that she owned.

 

I queried with the lawyer why Jane had to sign all these docs and i was told that she needed to extend her visa and the lawyer was helping her do that.
 

There is more to this story however is this normal practice baring in mind she had only been in hospital (ICU)  2 days?

 

 

 

 

 

 

[bbi1]

Why isn't the insurance company covering the entire bill since she has insurance?

[tonray]

If she is able to sign docs, then can she speak and answer questions ? what is she signing exactly .? Who is the lawyer and why is he involved ? What is her Visa status now ? How did lawyer know to contact you and what is your relationship to patient ?

 

Too many questions that you need to answer before anyone can help here.

[Kwasaki]

OP did she read the documents before signing if it's for visa extension it should be OK.

If she can hold a pen she can hold a phone and telephone her UK bank.

If you talked to her insurance what did they say. ?

Hope she recovers fully.

[ed strong]

I didn't see any papers that related to a visa application just plans of her condo which she was signing on each page.

Is that normal on a visa application if you own a condo in Thailand?

 

She had not disclosed some previous ailment with the insurance company and therefore they were looking into it.

 

She could barely speak and was very confused and could just about sign the papers. She was unable to remember her passwords at the time and i helped her speak to the bank and we managed to get some details but as said she was very confused. We were unable to transfer money that stage.

 

The lawyer was also my lawyer at the time (not anymore) so she asked me to help.

I was also told by the lawyer that i could stay in Jane's condo free of charge !?

 

Unfortunately the following day the lady had a heart attack whilst in ICU and was moved to a hospital in Bangkok.

 

As said there was more involved but does this seem normal behaviour for such a situation in Thailand?

 

[NancyL]

Sadly, this is what can happen when someone who is resident in Thailand, like Jane obviously was since she had a condo in HuaHin, doesn't  to set up a Final Will, Advance Health Directive (aka Living Will) and a Durable Power of Attorney so that someone can act on her behalf to make financial decisions if/when she becomes incapacitated.  All this can be done for less than 10,000 baht total.

 

If she had any of these documents in place, then the Thai lawyer/accountant was acting improperly.  Even if she had just a Final Will, then he was undercutting the intention of the Will by, in effect, getting Jane to sign over her condo to him.  But, if none of these documents were in place, then he was trying to obtain access to her funds to assist her.  Maybe not in a totally ethical way.  Perhaps he promised Bangkok Hospital that he could sell her condo to pay for her medical treatment.  Otherwise, she was in very real danger of getting turfed out to a government hospital rather than receiving the care she needed in a private hospital.  

 

I'm involved with LannaCareNet.org and have seen expats with money needlessly die because no one around them can get access to their money in their home country.  

 

 

[dddave]

Have you contacted the humanitarian officer at the British Embassy?  I know they have been reported to not be a whole lot of help but when we had a somewhat similar situation in my apartment building, they at least did review all the persons documents and made recommendations.

Regarding her visa...a Doctor can submit a document on her behalf that can delay the need to renew.  The process has been recently detailed on this forum.

 

Sorry to sound cynical but do not trust the lawyer.  A friend recently had a Thai neighbor/friend who was a local prosecutor draw up some property documents for him.  Later, by chance he ran into an acquaintance who reads Thai well and asked him to review the docs.  It emerged that the lawyer had made himself beneficiary for my friends properties should he die. 

Edited June 16, 2017 by dddave

[KittenKong]

16 hours ago, ed strong said:

I didn't see any papers that related to a visa application just plans of her condo which she was signing on each page.

Is that normal on a visa application if you own a condo in Thailand?

 

That sounds as though maybe she was signing photocopies of the front of her chanote. Signing a copy is a standard Thai requirement though it seems pointless to me. More to the point if the official signed/stamped it as being a true copy of the original, but that's not how they do it.

 

Presenting a copy of your chanote is a way of showing your address for an extension, so what you describe is plausible, though I dont see why many copies or pages would be needed. The chanote only has two sides anyway so "many pages" must be something else. I hope they weren't sale contracts and Powers of Attorney.

 

Personally I would never trust a Thai lawyer and would never let one get his hands on my chanote. I wouldn't let anyone else here get his hands on it either, nor would I sign anything without an independent Thai-reading third party checking it. In this situation I would want to know where the chanote is now and would want to get it back to keep it safe for the lady.

[NancyL]

The private hospitals all have customer service reps who can go to Immigration and obtain a medical visa extension for someone who is an in-patient.  This can be a solution for someone who is too ill to participate in transferring funds from their home country to Thailand to fulfill the financial requirements for a visa extension.

[ed strong]

Thank you for the replies, it seems very suspicious and ties in with some other things that do not really add up.

 

I really don't understand how they can be so contradictory. On the face of it they do anything to help you and it seems some of them are just setting you up. 

 

They don't see you as a customer but as some sort of private pension scheme for themseleves.