Elderly man dies after falling from ladder in Chanthaburi orchard

An 85 year old man tragically died after falling from a ladder while tending to durian flowers in Chanthaburi. Emergency medical teams performed CPR and used a defibrillator but the man was found unresponsive under a durian tree, and could not be revived.

Police Lieutenant Pacharapol Tanjing of the Chanthaburi City Police Station received a report of a serious accident involving an elderly man falling from a ladder in a durian orchard. The incident occurred at around 5pm yesterday, October 7, in Phlap Phla subdistrict, Chanthaburi.

First responders and an emergency medical team rushed to the scene where they discovered the man lying on his back beneath a durian tree, showing no signs of life. An aluminium ladder, 7 metres in height, was found leaning against the tree, along with a hook stick used for tending flowers and three broken, non-decayed branches.

Despite the best efforts of the medical team, who immediately began CPR and used a defibrillator, the elderly man did not respond and was pronounced dead at the scene. Forensic doctors from Phra Pok Klao Hospital and rescue workers from Sawang Katanyu Chanthaburi were called to examine the body.

There were no external injuries, but both sides of the man’s rib cage under the breast were fractured. It remains unclear if these fractures resulted from the fall or the CPR attempts.

The man’s son-in-law, who discovered him, reported that after returning home from work, he did not find his father-in-law at home. He went into the orchard and found the elderly man lying under the durian tree, unresponsive but with a faint pulse.

The son-in-law immediately called emergency services at 1169 and started performing CPR while waiting for the emergency team, but it was too late by the time they arrived.

The deceased’s daughter mentioned that her father had a heart condition and required a pacemaker but remained active, frequently working in the orchard. The family had previously advised him against such activities.

She speculated that he had secretly taken the aluminium ladder to climb the durian tree and tend to the blossoming flowers of the Krathum durian variety, reported KhaoSod.

Preliminary medical assessments suggested that complications from his heart condition might have contributed to his fall. However, a definitive cause of death would require an autopsy, which the family decided against, expressing no suspicions about the cause of death and requesting to proceed with religious rites.