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Published on October 10, 2007

Deputy Prime Minister Paiboon Wattanasiritham will remain under close observation in hospital for the next few days after he was rushed from Government House for balloon-angioplasty treatment yesterday.

He felt constrictions in his chest while attending the weekly Cabinet meeting.

Not long after his proposed Family Promotion Bill failed to win the Cabinet's approval, Paiboon asked Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont for permission to go to hospital.

"He had a heart attack," Dr Sarana Boonbaichaiyapruck said yesterday. Dr Sarana is the head of Ramathibodi Hospital's cardiology division and the doctor in charge of Paiboon's case.

Sarana said Paiboon, who is also the social development and human security minister, got to the hospital in time for angioplasty and is now taking medicines to ease chest constrictions.

The cardiologist said that apart from the coronary thrombosis that required balloon angioplasty, Paiboon was also suffering from coronary artery disease. "He will be kept under close observation for a few days and will have to stay at the hospital for at least a week," Sarana said.

Paiboon, 66, is now in the hospital's intensive care unit.

An informed source said Surayud immediately asked Public Health Minister Mongkol na Songkhla, who is also a doctor, to help take care of Paiboon.

Right after receiving primary care at Government House, Paiboon was rushed to Ramathibodi Hospital accompanied by his wife Khunying Jada Wattanasiritham, along with Mongkol and Deputy Social Development and Human Security Minister Poldej Pinpratheep.

A Government House source said it was widely believed that the rejection of his supported bills brought on the heart attack.

Earlier this year, Paiboon had also tried to push for the Community Organisation Council Bill, but it was rejected. According to the source, Paiboon's Family Promotion Bill won the support of Mongkol, PM's Office Minister Khunying Dhipavadee Meksawan and Science and Technology Minister Yongyuth Yuthavong, but that wasn't enough to secure the Cabinet's approval.

He said that after the Cabinet rejected the bill, Dhipavadee suggested the PM's Office issue a regulation to establish a family-promotion committee to handle the job the bill sought to do.

 The Nation