Brit son’s race against time to save dying dad in Thailand
A heartbroken British man is fighting to bring his dying dad home from Thailand for life-saving treatment, before it’s too late.
Reginald Leo had been chasing his retirement dreams in Pattaya but now he’s clinging to life after a foot wound spiralled into a catastrophic medical crisis.
Leo’s devastated son, Jonathan, who moved to Thailand in 2017, has given up everything to care for him and is now begging for help to fund an emergency flight back to the UK.
The 77 year old retired security officer from Milton Keynes, moved to Thailand with his wife, Valerie, last May to join Jonathan. But within months, a small wound on his foot became severely infected.
Doctors diagnosed him with diabetes, and by November, the wound had turned gangrenous. The excruciating pain robbed him of his mobility, his appetite, and his will to fight, said his 33 year old son.
“It just feels like his retirement dreams have been shattered to pieces.”
By January, Reginald had lost half his body weight and was diagnosed with Addison’s disease, a rare and life-threatening disorder affecting the adrenal glands.
His condition is now so critical that he may require an amputation. But thanks to bureaucratic red tape and delays caused by the recent earthquake in Bangkok, Jonathan has been left battling in vain to get his father the urgent care he needs.
“My concern is that eventually, we need to get the leg cut off and we need to address his Addison’s disease. I need an assessment of what’s going wrong internally as well, so I want to get him back to the UK.”
Jonathan has repeatedly contacted the British Embassy in Bangkok, but claims their response has been painfully slow.
Desperate for answers, he has also explored private air ambulance options but the staggering cost of between £35,000 (1.6 million baht) and £55,000 (2.5 million baht) has left him at a loss.
“I want to do everything I can to keep my dad alive. There is every possibility that he can recover from this. He’s been like this for weeks, a skeleton. I’m pretty sure he’s holding on.”
Every day, Jonathan washes, feeds, and dresses his father’s bandages, helplessly watching as he wastes away before his eyes.
“I can see the tendons, I can see the bones. It is traumatising, because you look at him and think, ‘that was my dad’. He used to be able to walk, and now he’s pretty much a skeleton.
“I have problems trying to shave him because I’m literally going up the bone. I have to pick him up and hold him while showering him.”
Determined to save his father’s life, Jonathan has launched an online fundraiser to cover the overwhelming medical costs, the Standard reported.
“My only priority right now is to get the care in place for him, make sure we get his health back together slightly at least, and then I can start to rebuild things.”
A spokesperson for the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office said: “We are supporting a British man and his family in Thailand and are in touch with the local authorities.”
To help Jonathan Leo bring his dad home, visit his fundraising page.
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