One of the children rescued from a cave in Thailand dies

BANGKOK (AP) — One of 12 children rescued after being trapped in a cave in Thailand for more than two weeks in 2018 has died in England where he was attending a sports academy, the foundation that funded his studies said Wednesday.

Duangphet “Dom” Phromthep, 17, was found unconscious in his bedroom at Brooke House College Football Academy in Leicestershire on Sunday and was taken to hospital where he died on Tuesday, the Thai Zico Foundation reported. The academy also confirmed the death.

“This event has left our university community deeply saddened and shaken,” the institution’s director, Ian Smith, said in a statement. “We join in the grief of Dom’s family, friends, teammates and all those involved in the different phases of his life, as well as everyone else affected by this loss in Thailand and in the family. of this academic institution.”

Zico Foundation director, former Thailand soccer team captain Kiatisuk Senamuang, told an online press conference that he did not know the cause of death and that Dom appeared to be in good health. .

Dom was captain of the Wild Boars, a youth football team from Chiang Rai province in northern Thailand. Twelve team members, aged 11 to 16, were trapped with the team technician in the Tham Luang cave complex in June 2018 due to rising waters.

A massive rescue operation involving foreign divers has been launched. The children were trapped in the cave for nine nights, subsisting on very little food and water, before being detected by a diver, huddled on a mound just above water level. The moment was captured on video and broadcast around the world.

It took another eight days before all the youngsters were rescued. A team of expert divers removed the children one by one on special stretchers after anesthetizing them to calm them down during the transfer. The operation required placing oxygen tanks along the path the divers took to maneuver through the cave’s dark passages.

Dom’s mother, who attended the press conference, expressed hope that a Buddhist monk in England could perform the appropriate ritual to prevent the young man’s spirit from being trapped where he died, as the Buddhist belief indicates.