Chat Chai
Chat Chai has a heart condition, however his family do not have the money to get him medical treatment. It
has been causing the family a lot of stress, and as a result Chat Chai recently suggested to his mother that maybe it would be best if he died rather than cause problems for the family. Chat Chai has a younger sister and brother, aged 10 and 2. His family used to live in Ta O’ Hta in Karen State, but there was fighting between the DKBA and KNU in their area, and they could not work because of the many mines in and around their area. It became too unsafe for them, and their lives were at risk, so they, and many people from their village, moved to Thailand. They moved to Kyat Ket on the Thai side, and have lived there for many years.
Chat Chai’s family work as farmers for a living. They work in the mountain growing rice paddy, and in the rainy season they have to find daily work to get them through. They do any kind of work they can find, and earn about 70 baht a day to buy food for the family. The older two children attend school, however the youngest is too young to go to school. When the parents are at work their neighbor looks after the younger child.
His family first noticed Chat Chai’s health problem in January 2009. He had been sick with malaria and they took him to Pho Pha Hospital. There the doctor informed them that Chat Chai has a heart problem, and referred them to MSH. At Mae Sot Hospital they admitted him for three days. Mae Sot Hospital asked them for the money for the treatment. It cost 4000 baht for the initial treatment and Mae Sot Hospital told them that they cannot treat Chat Chai’s heart problem and that he would need to go to Chiang Mai Hospital for this operation. Chat Chai’s mother told them that she did not have the money to pay for her son’s treatment and could only afford to pay them 200 baht. Mae Sot Hospital asked her to try and pay them back over time, and told her about Mae Tao Clinic (MTC). They had known about the clinic for a long time, but they had never been before as it was too difficult for them to come because of security. They came to MTC to get help for the child. At the hospital they saw someone from MTC who took them to the clinic, his mother says that it was such good luck for the family and that she is so happy she could cry that she can get help for her child from MTC.
When asked, Chat Chai says he is not feeling very happy, he is tired and has palpitations, and he gets headaches. He says he cannot play very well like other children at the school. Chat Chai’s mother says it is so difficult for the family to see him like this and not be able to help him because they don’t have the money, she says she feels so stressed for her child, particularly when the child told her that maybe they’d be better off if he died. Chat Chai says that if he grows up he wants to help his parents by doing whatever he can. He wants to get better and go to school, and he would also like to be in construction.