Helicopter rescue fails to save woman

MAITON ISLAND: The Police Aviation Division’s helicopter flew to Koh Maiton on Friday to pick up a woman who had had a heart attack. She was rushed to a hospital in Phuket Town. Dr Boonrieng Chuchaisangrat, head of the Phuket Provincial Health office, told the Gazette that he had received a phone call from Maiton Resort at 6 pm on Friday saying that a woman at the resort needed emergency help. The woman, Duangjai Kullawanich, 50, and her husband, Dr Suppachai Kullawanich, a top heart specialist from Ramathibodi Hospital in Bangkok, were walking on the beach in front of the resort when her heart failed. About 50 heart doctors were on Maiton Island at the time, on a break from a seminar they were all attending at Phuket’s Cape Panwa Hotel. Attempts by some of the doctors to restart K. Duangjai’s heart were unsuccessful. The helicopter was then called to take her to Wachira General Hospital in Phuket. “It took about 15 minutes to pick her up and return,” said Pol Lt Col Leurgiet Magonpan, head of the Phuket Police Aviation Division and the captain of the chopper. “Maiton Island is about 10 kilometers from Phuket,” Dr Boonrieng said. “If we had transferred her by boat and then ambulance to the hospital, it would have taken one-and-a-half to two hours.” K. Duangjai, who had a history of heart problems, was declared dead an hour after arriving at Wachira.