Wife fatally stabs husband in clinic

PHUKET CITY: A man stabbed in the shoulder by his wife went into shock and died while receiving hospital treatment early Sunday morning.

Phuket City Police Duty Inspector Sarit Butnongsang told the Gazette he received a report at 3:20 am on Sunday of a stabbing at Mor Term Medical Clinic Branch 2, a traditional Thai medicine clinic located in a commercial building on Surin Road.

At the front of the clinic police found 30-year-old Nattapim Prajantaboot covered with bloodstains and in a state of shock.

Relatives had already rushed her husband, 33-year-old Thawatchai Gun Takuapa, to Wachira Hospital for treatment of a stab wound to his left shoulder.

At the hospital, Mr Thawatchai was conscious and talking to doctors when he suddenly went into shock and died, Lt Col Sarit said.

At the clinic, investigators found signs of a violent struggle as well as the kitchen knife used by Mrs Nattapim to stab her husband. A neighbor told police she heard a loud argument in the clinic beforehand.

Mrs Nattapim told police that she stabbed her husband in self-defense when he began to assault her, then immediately called an ambulance for him.

She was later informed by police that her husband had died and she was called in for questioning.

Mrs Nattapim, the granddaughter of the doctor who established the clinic, told police that she and Mr Thawatchai had three children together. Mr Thawatchai often returned home drunk and assaulted her. She had already filed several reports chronicling the abuse, she said in her report.

Police are continuing to investigate the case and they have not ruled out the possibility that a pre-existing medical condition or other causes may have contributed to Mr Thawatchai’s sudden death, Lt Col Sarit said.

Mrs Nattapim now faces charges of negligence causing the death of another person, which carries a maximum jail sentence of 10 years and a maximum fine of 20,000 baht. She has already been released on bail.