Ex-Miss Thailand rescues ant-covered woman from drunk husband
A former Miss Thailand turned social activist has exposed a heart-wrenching case of elder neglect in Prachuap Khiri Khan – finding a frail woman bedridden, covered in ants and fed scraps by her drunken husband.
Panadda Wongphudee, 46, chairperson of the Good Deeds Foundation, led the rescue mission yesterday, March 21, alongside officials from the Pak Nam Pran Municipality and the Department of Social Development and Welfare. They were responding to a complaint filed about the mistreatment of a disabled elderly woman in Village 2, Pak Nam Pran subdistrict, Pran Buri district.
“She had a piece of fried chicken placed on her chest. She was trying to lift her head to eat while ants crawled over the bed. Her husband was fast asleep nearby, clutching a bottle of white liquor.”
The victim, a 73 year old woman who cannot walk, was found in appalling conditions. According to the foundation, her husband, known only as Thong, has long used her to solicit pity and handouts from marketgoers. He reportedly wheels her to public places to beg for food and money, only to abandon her under trees once he gets what he wants.
Thong allegedly spends her disability allowance on alcohol and fails to provide proper care or hospital-prescribed medication. Past reports suggest she has been left in her wheelchair so long that ants began swarming her body.
The couple’s son is employed on a ship and rarely returns home, usually for just one day at a time, leaving the woman in her husband’s care.
Following the intervention, the elderly woman was rushed to Pran Buri Hospital and is expected to be transferred to a Bangkok facility for further treatment. Officials are also working to determine whether she should be placed in a senior care home or a facility for the disabled, reported KhaoSod.
Meanwhile, local authorities plan to enrol Thong in an alcohol rehabilitation programme and help him find employment, aiming to break the cycle of neglect and ensure his wife is no longer subjected to inhumane conditions.
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