Breathe easier

Assadawut Pattum is confined to a hospital here because he can't return to the lov¬ing arms of his dad - all for the want of money to buy a respirator.

Assadawut, 14, lost a leg and his lungs were severely damaged in a 2002 road accident.

The accident kept him in hospital for five months. He was able to go home to his father and grandmother, until he developed a lung infection in April.

He's now back in Mukdahan Hospital. His doctors say the infection's cleared up and the boy can go home. But, he needs a respirator to breathe.

"There are no complications. His lungs are just too weak for him to breathe by himself. But if he has a respirator, he will be able to live at home," Dr Patcharawadee Sridaphan said.

Father Wisit, 50, is pleading for help. "My son and I are at your mercy. He wants to be with me and I want to take care of him," he says.

He says his boy chose to stay with his dad when his mother left many years ago.

Assadawut can eat by himself, even though he cannot speak. "My son can talk. He mouths the words. I read his lips," Wisit says.

Wisit cares for his own mother, who is old and frail. "If my son can come home I can take care of them both.

"I have to work so right now I don't have much time to visit him at the hospital."

Already Wallapa Triprakorn has donated Bt2,000 towards a reunion and hopes more will give, too. "I had an accident, too. I know how difficult life is," Wallapa says.