Alzheimer's Patient Drowns in 3-Meter Canal
A 70-year-old Alzheimer's patient drowned in a 3-meter-deep canal in Chachoengsao Province after wandering from his home overnight; villagers discovered his body the following morning.
At 9:00 a.m. on September 10, Sergeant Rewat Abdin, an investigator at Bang Nam Prio Police Station in Chachoengsao Province, received a report of a drowning victim in Bueng Kong Kham Canal, Don Thong Village, Ban Nam Prio Subdistrict. Rescue officials were notified and responded to the scene.
At the canal, many villagers gathered at a bridge and helped search by boat in the water, which exceeded three meters in depth. They found the body of 70-year-old Mr. Muad submerged at the canal bottom, some distance from the bridge, and retrieved it to the shore. The body showed no shirt, and there was a bleeding wound on the left side of the head. Initial assessment suggested he may have fallen and suffered an injury before accidentally falling into the canal and drowning.
Suchati, 50, the victim's grandson-in-law, revealed that Mr. Muad lived alone across the canal and suffered from Alzheimer's disease. The night before the incident, around midnight, Suchati heard a commotion and found Mr. Muad walking in a nearby well. Fortunately, the well was shallow, so they brought him out, bathed him, and returned him to his home.
That night at approximately 2:00 a.m., neighbors heard a sound like something falling into Bueng Kong Kham Canal and came out calling for him, searching and calling out but finding nothing. At dawn, villagers decided to search the canal, suspecting Mr. Muad had fallen in since he was not at his house. They discovered his body submerged at the canal bottom.
Anurak Thong Dee, 35, a subdistrict administrative official, said that after receiving a report around 2:00 a.m., he joined villagers in searching and calling out until around 3:00 a.m. with no results. Based on preliminary information, the victim was an Alzheimer's patient who had recently wandered into a nearby well. It is believed that on the night of the incident, he may have become disoriented, left his home, and accidentally fell into Bueng Kong Kham Canal, which is three meters deep, leading to drowning.
Police initially arranged for rescue personnel to transport the body to Bang Nam Prio Hospital for a forensic autopsy to determine the cause of death, before releasing it to family members for religious rites at Don Thong Mosque.
