A mentally ill Phuket man was rescued from a home where his exasperated family members kept him chained up. Eakkapop Thongtub of The Phuket News has the story:
PHUKET — Kusoldham rescue workers yesterday responded to a distress call from a man at rubber farm in Thalang, seeking assistance for his mentally-disturbed sibling.
Upon arriving to the scene in the Sisunthon subdistrict, the 10-person rescue team met Anurak or “Tawan,” 28, who introduced them to his elder brother, Prawit, 37, who was restricted to the confines of the roughly four-by-five-meter section of an orchard house.
Restricting the 37-year-old man was a padlocked chain attached to his ankle and a post. On a wooden bed counter, there were dishes and bottles.
Tawan explained that of five siblings, three, including Prawit, had suffered from mental health sickness for some time.
And although the two other siblings had already been successfully treated, Prawit remained ill, and regularly suffered from mental outbreaks off and on for the past 20 years.
Tawan said that “outbreaks” began in the year before Prawit graduated from Phuket technical school decades ago, and were unpredictable and uncontrollable.
Lately, he had become a menace in the neighborhood, wandering around, scratching and disassembling villagers cars and motorbikes.
So the family decided to chain him to the house, while contemplating what they should do.
Finally they decided to call Kusoldham. Prawit was responsive, and seemed to be normal.
Nonetheless, Prawit was escorted to the psychiatric ward of Wachira Hospital for initial examination before he will be be sent to another specialist psychiatric facility.
