Andrew Drummond

Two weeks or so ago STV – Scottish Television - went with a story about how a 64-yr-old Scots engineer Allan Hyne – had been abandoned to die from an unknown virus in Thailand in a pauper’s hospital with nobody to take care of him.
The television station interviewed his son and daughter, but not his Scottish wife, and on screen we were shown a bill of over 500,000 Thai baht (approx ten thousand pounds) with the suggestion the family were paying it.
They also complained that they faced costs of up to 200,000 UK pounds to have their father, still in a coma, flown back to Scotland.
This could have, I suppose, been a real enough scenario, except medivac flights are a lot cheaper.
But nobody on STV, or at the Press & Journal in Aberdeen, or the Scotsman newspaper in Edinburgh,  made any attempt to check out whether any of this was true…..And not much was.
In fact Allan, the Chief Engineer at Grampian Food’s plant in Lam Luka, north of Bangkok, was being taken care of, seemingly to the best of her ability, by his engineer girlfriend/partner, Dtim, aged 54.

Allan with Dtim when he was first admitted

Through the most awful twist of fate, just a month into retirement,  he had been struck down by Japanese encephalitis, a mosquito borne disease which is very rare, but not unknown, but which can be fatal.
He had NEVER been in a pauper’s hospital.  His insurance had paid the original bill at a private hospital in Ramkhamhaeng, Bangkok, and the bill at the second private hospital, Ake Pathom, was shared between a local company policy and Dtim.  It was a private hospital. She made up the difference.

Allan & Dtim with Scots family in better days in the Carribean

In the meantime, and we have this confirmed by doctors and nurses at the Ake Pathom hospital in Rangsit,  Dtim took a month off work to study nursing full time, or more specifically how to nurse Allan and work all the complicated life supporting gadgets.

Allan’s doctor and nurses also say that his recovery must be due at least in part to Dtim’s devotion. 
She also built a fully equipped hospital room in the front lounge of the couple’s home in Bangkok. She took him home last Sunday.
So set this off against the family’s remarks in Scotland.

They rightly point out that Allan is already married. They say he was taken out of the hospital without their permission. They say he is a person trapped within his own body. And they are rightly suspicious because Dtim wanted cash.

Discharged and returning to his home in Bangkok

The family, perhaps understandably, senses a typical rip-off.  And to be honest so common are these rip-offs in Thailand that it is always the first possibility to be considered.

To the family it is immaterial that Dtim had looked after Allan for the last five, or seven years, depending on who you talk to.
The family of course appear to have lost their father, brother, uncle…to a Thai woman, who appears to have taken him from them in the twilight years of his life. ‘Maybe she wants his inheritance?’ may have been running through their minds.
Dtim does want cash, she admits. She wants the family to help with costs for the care in Thailand, or if not, pay for Allan’s medical evacuation flight back to Scotland. She says she needs 35,000 Thai baht a month to provide nursing care for him. But that, she says, is all.

Allan spoonfed in better days

Although she is an engineer,  her Thai salary would not come anywhere near matching that of Allan before he retired last year.  She has, she says, had to sell ‘the BMW’  to pay the costs so far. If she was being Machiavellian I guess there would be no need to sell the BMW to furnish a private hospital ward in their sitting room.

Allan and Dtim before his retirement

Anyway our video unit duly transmitted some material back to Scottish Television which was used yesterday  and I updated the P & J so that Scots could at least hear what Dtim and the doctor had to say. It was broadcast though with the error that Dtim was demanding 7,000 pounds not 700 a month, which will I guess have set the pipes a-skirling again.

The Press and Journal weirdly alluded to ‘reports coming from Thailand’ which sounded a bit Dickensian, and as if a pigeon had just come in through the window in Lang Stracht, whereas we file direct into their newsdesk  and talk on the telephone.
Personally I was touched. I don’t detect all scams. I have even been fooled myself. But the tears in the eyes of Dtim, her mother, and daughter-in-law, on getting Allan home again were real enough, though cynics will say those eyes were seeing pound notes and dollar bills.
Because of her strong accent Dtim does actually sound sometimes like a character from ‘Little Britain’ talking about ‘Khun Dudwee’, but it comes across pretty clear that she wants the best for Allan Hyne.

Now there is a massive gap in this story.  This could be down to the vast communication gap. Something,  indeed many things,  may have happened that none of us know about. So I am not even going to begin to think about sitting in judgment.

Allan’s son complains that whenever he called the hospital people just put down the phone on him. Anyone who has seen the ‘Trawlermen’ will understand that the Scottish North East accent sometimes takes a little bit of comprehending, which is maybe why.

So if I were a caring member of Allan Hyne’s family in the North East of Scotland and did not speak Thai, I would forget about the media and the Foreign Office and head to the nearest Thai restaurant, get hold of a member of staff, and get her to work the phones for me for a while, to find out what really is going on.

Allan Hyne's Garden nook

There are over 100 Thai restaurants in Scotland.  Several in Aberdeen, 46 miles, but one in Inverness, one of my old haunts. Ok, its about 60 odd miles, from Buckie.  But in Inverness they speak very clear English….. clearer in fact than the average English person does.  No ‘foos yer doos?’ or ‘fit ya bins’!

That way we do not have  ‘Oor Wullie!’ talking to ‘Ting Tong Macadangdang’.
At the moment it seems like the Scottish family want Dtim to sell her Thai home so she can continue to support Allan.  Something, it seems, she is prepared to do.

Dtim of course has no legal claim on Allan Hyne (senior), who has a home in Scotland and who also banks there. He, as the Scots family point out, has a legal wife already.
As for Dtim taking care of Allan in Scotland? 

Some how I do not think that’s really on the cards.  Who will be her sponsor?

The 400,000 baht converted ward in Allan's Bangkok sitting room

“She think’s she’s coming to Scotland. Aye that’ll be right!” was the reply when I called one of the family homes this week. This means roughly: ‘Tell her where she can put her crummock!’………or, er, ‘No she isn’t!”
Anyway Dtim, for what you have done so far for a, dare I say it,  fellow Scot.
‘Thanks a million and lets hope Allan continues to recover.’

Happily back in his Bangkok home or 'Help ma boab. I've been kidnapped'