Nation photographer placed on feeding tube

Doctors yesterday started tube feeding the photographer who collapsed from a stroke while covering news last Friday, but his condition remained critical.

"We are now waiting for his brain tissue to recover in the near future," Dr Chaiphon Wutthi-Opas, a surgeon at Klang Hospital, said yesterday.

The medical team for The Nation photographer Sakol Sandhiratne is now evaluating whether he can be taken off the tube after the team found that his blood pressure had dropped to a normal level.

Doctors are using a respiratory device to control his blood pressure and feed minerals and food to him via a tube.

Sakol suffered a cerebral haemorrhage but was refused use of the hospital's ambulance that was on standby at Parliament. His colleagues were told that the ambulance had to be available in case a legislator needed to be taken to the hospital right away.

Sakol was rushed to Klang Hospital by an ambulance from the Narenthorn EMS Centre. He underwent surgery and had surplus fluid drained from his brain.

Chaiphon insisted that Sakol had not been delivered to the hospital too late, saying that upon arrival he was able to speak with a doctor and move his eyes.

"He was not in a coma when he arrived," Chaiphon said.

Sakol had suffered a pontine hemorrhage, which strikes a vital location in the brain and can cause re-bleeding, the surgeon said.

"We'll do the best we can to help him," Chaiphon said.