London
CNN
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Duangphet Phromthepone of 12 boys Rescued from flooded cave in Thailand After a week-long surgery that gained global attention in 2018, passed away in the UK, British and Thai officials announced on Wednesday.
Phromthep, who was attending a football academy in Leicestershire, England, died after being taken to hospital on Sunday, Leicestershire Police said in a statement to CNN.
The northern regional branch of the Thai government’s public relations department said on Facebook that 17-year-old Phromthep had died in an accident, without providing further details.
“The atmosphere at his home in Chiang Rai province was filled with grief,” the Thai PR statement said.
The Zico Foundation, a Thai non-profit that helped Phromthep study in the UK through a football scholarship, wrote on Facebook on Wednesday: “Zico Foundation would like to express its condolences to the passing of Mr. Dom Duangpet Phromthep, a student receiving a scholarship from the Zico Foundation. ,” posted a photo of Phromthep.
Miracle of cave rescue in Thailand
Phromthep is the captain of the Wild Boars wdhich . youth soccer team Rescued after being trapped for more than two weeks in a network of flooded caves in the north Thai Chiang Rai province in summer 2018.
The 12 boys and their coach were trapped when rising floodwaters severed them deep inside the cave, sparking an international rescue effort that lasted nearly three weeks.
Divers involved in the rescue described dangerous conditions, with fast-flowing shallow water passing through very narrow passageways.
In a complex three-day final operation, the boys were divided into groups of four and provided with 5mm thick wetsuits, masked breathing apparatus and air tanks.
Each boy is taken out by two divers, who carry oxygen tanks and guide them through the murky tunnels. Each rescue lasted several hours, with most of the time in the water.
The most dangerous part was the first kilometer, in which divers and boys had to squeeze through a narrow and flooded canal.
Rescuers had to hold the boys’ oxygen tanks in front of them and swim like a pencil through the flooded holes. After completing this section, the boys were then handed over to separate, specialized rescue teams, who helped assist them through the rest of the cave, most of which they were able to wade through.
Phromthep, known as Dom, left the cave in a second group of boys taken more than two weeks after they were first trapped. He’s one of three boys whose birthday slipped while they were deep underground. In his first text to his parents, he begged them not to forget. “I am fine, but the weather is quite cold. But don’t worry,” he said. “Don’t forget my birthday,” he said.
From the hospital, after being rescued, he said he wanted to eat pork and rice and thanked everyone for their support.
All 12 boys were rescued and their coach was later transported to a nearby hospital to recuperate.
Family members greeted the news of their rescue with relief and tears of happiness, punching the air when they heard their son was alive.
Reacting to Phromthep’s death, Prajak Sutham, one of the Thai cave survivors, wrote on Facebook: “We’ve been through a lot of good things and hard times together. We’ve been through life-and-death situations together, when you told me to wait and see if you became a national player. I always believe you can do it. The last time we saw each other before you left the UK, I joked with you that, when you come back, I’ll ask for your autograph. Rest in peace mate, we’ve always had each other, the 13 of us.”
Rick Stanton, the lead diver on the 2018 rescue mission, told CNN’s Don Riddell he was shocked by the news and said fellow rescuers had been notified.
“When John Volanthen and I first found Wild Boars after nine days of arduous searching, it was Dom who took the lead and wrote the first messages to the outside world,” he said in an email.
“According to personal recollection, I swam with Dom’s unconscious body while escorting him to safety on the second day of the rescue mission. I carefully hold his precious life in my hands, taking full responsibility for his survival under the most extreme circumstances.”
The Doi Wao temple in his hometown in Chiang Rai also expressed condolences to Phromthep’s mother.
Brooke House College, which Phromthep attended as a student at the Football Academy, said in a statement that his death “has left our college community deeply saddened and shaken.” .
“This event has left our college community deeply saddened and traumatized. Our condolences go out to all of Dom’s family, friends, former teammates and those involved in all parts of his life, as well as all those affected by the loss. in Thailand and throughout the university’s entire global family,” said the university’s president, Ian Smith.
According to the statement, Brooke House College is liaising with the statutory authorities and the Royal Thai Embassy in London, and is “devoting all resources to supporting our students, as they are young people check in to pass the Dom.”
