Villagers walked 9 km in the rain carrying a bedridden grandmother over 90 years old from a remote area to board a vehicle to verify her identity and obtain an ATM card at a district bank.
In a case posted on Facebook by a user named “Near Eye but Far Feet,” Assistant Village Headman Phon Wath shared a touching story. Community leaders, the village security team (Chor Bor Ror), forest fire officials, health volunteers, and local villagers in Ban Ko Sadeng, Moo 3, Lai Wo Subdistrict, Sangkhla Buri District, Kanchanaburi Province, helped carry 90-year-old bedridden elderly woman Ms. Suapuy Thongphachong out of the remote area to conduct transactions at Krung Thai Bank, Sangkhla Buri branch.
This event occurred because Ms. Suapuy’s ATM card could not be used for transactions at the machine, requiring her to personally verify her identity with bank officials. The money involved was provided by her children and grandchildren monthly to cover her care expenses.
Due to the terrain and the elderly woman’s health condition, she could not travel normally. Officials and villagers placed her on a stretcher and carried her on foot from Ban Ko Sadeng to Ban Kong Mong Tha, a distance of about 9 kilometers, through continuous rain, before transferring her to a vehicle to continue to Sangkhla Buri District.
Ban Ko Sadeng is located within the western area of the Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary, where cars cannot enter except motorcycles. During flash floods, motorcycles are also unusable, leaving helicopters as the only option. It is a remote area with difficult access, especially in the rainy season. Carrying patients or elderly people out of the village for treatment at Sangkhla Buri Hospital often requires stretcher transport, a routine task familiar to locals.
After this story was shared, many people praised the cooperation of officials and villagers in caring for the elderly. Suggestions were made for relevant agencies to consider the challenges of remote areas and provide solutions such as mobile service units to reduce travel burdens for elderly and bedridden patients in the community.