Two-time Myanmar Academy Award winning actor and director Kyaw Thu has made a near-full recovery after undergoing open heart surgery in Bangkok, his wife Myint Myint Khin Pe confirmed in a Facebook statement yesterday.
The surgery, which involved Kyaw Thu having all four heart valves replaced, took place this past Saturday. According to Myint Myint Khin Pe’s updates, everything went smoothly, and Kyaw Thu was transferred out of the CCU just three days later.
Although it’s unclear exactly when he’ll be cleared to return to Yangon, all signs indicate that it will probably be in the near future.
Myint Myint Khin Pe has also been uploading photos of Kyaw Thu with the Myanmar staff at Bumrungrad Hospital, as well as with various fans throughout his stay at the hospital.
On social media, fans have also been wishing the actor well under Myint Myint Khin Pe’s posts. Yesterday, one user wrote, “He’s always been a good person, and now his health is as good as his soul… He’ll easily live to 120.”
Having made his film debut in 1984, Kyaw Thu was one of Myanmar’s top leading actors in the 80s and 90s. To date, he has directed and starred in over 200 films.
In addition to his acting work, Kyaw Thu is also a prominent social activist with a history of run-ins with the government under the previous military regime. In the midst of the 1988 student uprisings, Kyaw Thu refused to star in a movie that he felt was a propaganda film that falsely depicted students in a negative light.
In 2007, Kyaw Thu and Myint Myint Khin Pe were detained for seven days, and the former suspended from filming, after they were found guilty of offering food to monks who were taking part in the Saffron Revolution.
In 2001, the couple founded the Free Funeral Service Society to provide free funeral services within the Yangon Region for those who cannot afford it.
In an interview with the Seattle Times last year, Kyaw Thu said: “The government, of course, didn’t like it [when we founded the FFSS]… It’s the kind of social work that points out the sufferings of people and made them look bad.”
The Times noted at the time that the organization had funded more than 160,000 funerals.
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