A very active farmer's wife in Udon whose mother lived to 104 and her aunt is still alive at 102 and her husband is 86, is ill but the medical staff in the small private hospital she is in seem to have written her off because she is 84 and have virtually told her family coldly that she is too old for treatment. I'm therefore wondering if there is a more caring hospital whose doctors and staff would treat her kindly as just another patient rather than some one whose shelf life has expired. Any recommendations of a caring hospital to which we could transfer her witll be greatly appreciated.

Well this is sad, something I wasn't expecting to see here. If the money is available the PL hopital may be an answer or AEK Udon. From my experince Pala seemed to be more patient caring, but they are expensive by Thai standards. I don't know it they have a hospice available here, where she stays at home and profesional help is sent to the home a needed with the family providing the majority of care, wiht directio of the staff. For me that is what I would surronded by people who do really care about me.

I watched my brother go through this when there was no hope left, he was kept a comfortable as could be done until his death. I could see he was much happier sorounded by those who loved him a opposed to a bleak hospital setting. But this is very difficult for the other family members.

My one hopital stay here wa anythign but enjoyable the nursing staff seemed to only do the bear minimum and had the least amount of patient contact as possible. The only time you saw them was when they had patient rounds. Otherwise they sit at the nursing station talking amongst one another. Not very comforting to an ill person.

This was at AEK Udon the one exception was the Katoey who worked in the international office, can't recall her name at the moment, But a genunally caring person. I can't say enough about her kindness and helpfulness. Another lesson learned in Thailand

Here is the link for Paolo below. You don't say what the problem is, sometime it can be for the best, where the operation success is only 10 %. I guess you still should have the option, but thats a family decision.

Too me, it seems to be better here in Thailand, unlike america, the family stays with the sick member 24/7!

Hope for the best

Paolo Memorial

This is very sad indeed, IMO it really is down to money, is the lady in a hospital whereby she uses the 30bht treatment or in a private place. My mother-in-law is in a 30bht hospital right now and the family are doing all the washing and feeding, the nurses there merely apply dressings and hand out medication and it's not as though they're rushed off their feet. The old lady is too stubborn to go to the likes of AEK....

As for the AEK, for me and my stay there (3 days) I had nothing but caring attentive nurses and doctor. Regular visits by the nurses to see if there was anything I needed....sadly this didn't include bedbaths....

I do agree though if / when I'm nearing the time to meet the nmaker I would want to be near family. My Mother was hospitalised for her last days, not allowed to go home, and that's all she wanted, to be with family at the end.

Ray, Dakoda and kudjap, thank you very much for your suggestions and the lady's family members will check out AEK and Paolo this afternoon. We here in Oz are quite happy to contibute to the lady having a comfortable stay and hopefully a recovery, so the cost should not be too much of a burden for her family. Incidentally, the Udon family members got the impression especially because the doctors and staff have not told them what is actually wrong and how long her stay needs to be, that the hospital she is currently in might even be prolonging the lady's treatment to keep her there for financial reasons, so her 11 children will be very pleased and relieved if we can transfer their mother to a more caring place where they won't have such concerns. Trevor.