Tragedy played out on Facebook as sick and uninsured Bangkok expat dies on the way to hospital
A foreign man dies following a road traffic accident on Friday while on the way to hospital to seek treatment for a severely infected leg.
Just hours earlier, the dead man identified as Christian Melzer, had posted in a facebook group asking for help regarding his infected leg.
Mr Melzer posted asking for information on which hospital in Bangkok would treat him despite having only social security and no private insurance.
“Who can tell me a good, really good hospital which I can visit with Social Security???” read the post.
“Never mind in which area in BKK Ort around. I have 6 months to fight with an infection and my hospital (Chalurat 9) not get it away…
“I have much pain and I don’t know what to do anymore …”
Accompanying the post was a graphic photo of his severely infected leg.
Replies to the post urged Mr Melzer to seek urgent medical attention.
However, Mr Melzer suggested that he had no money to pay for treatment and no private insurance, saying that it could take a month for social security to pay any medical bills.
“Thank you for all the replies, but it seems I also can forget that. Even to change the allowed hospital by the social security take about one month …
“Don’t know what I can do more …”While people continued to post advice to Mr Melzer, a Facebook user posted a video to a Thai news site reporting on the death of a foreign man following a road traffic accident.
The news report, which was filmed just hours after Mr Melzer had posted asking for advice about his leg identified him as the victim.
Details of the accident remain unclear, however, from the video footage supplied to Thai news site Baabin.com, first responders believe Mr Melzer was riding his motorbike and collided with the side of an overpass, falling to his death.
Source: Thai Visa
