Phyo Ko is a 33-year-old man. He lives with his wife, son and daughter in Mae Tao Village in Thailand. Originally from across the border in Burma, he moved to Thailand in search of better job opportunities in 2009. Phyo Ko’s wife is a homemaker and their children are too young to attend school. Phyo Ko works as a construction day labourer and he earns 350 baht (approx. 11.67 USD) per day. However, recently he has not been able to work frequently because of pain in his left thigh.
In the beginning of 2021, Phyo Ko and his friend were working at a construction site in Mae Sot. While working, the scaffolding fell onto his left hand and his left thigh. After the accident, his hand and his thigh started to hurt. Once he applied oil made from traditional medicine to his hand and thigh, the pain stopped.
One month after the accident, his lower left thigh became swollen and a mass appeared above his knee on the front of his thigh. A doctor at Mae Sot Hospital (MSH) performed a physical examination and told him that there was nothing wrong with his thigh and did not give him any medication. Once he went home, Phyo Ko continued to apply the oil made from traditional medicine on his thigh. However, the mass did not disappear.
When his mass started to increase in size a few months later, his wife told him to go back to the hospital. When Phyo Ko went back to the hospital, there were no doctors available to see him in the outpatient department because of an increase of COVID-19 cases in the Mae Sot. He went home and continued to apply oil even though he felt it was not helping him. Over the last few weeks the pain in his thigh worsened and now he can no longer work.
Doctors want Phyo Ko to undergo a CT scan, a procedure in which x-ray images taken from several angles are combined to produce cross-sectional images of the body. This scan will hopefully help doctors diagnose his condition and formulate an appropriate treatment plan.
Our medical partner, Burma Children Medical Fund, is requesting $414 to cover the cost of Phyo Ko’s CT scan and care, scheduled for April 29th.
Phyo Ko said, “I would like to recover quickly because I cannot work since I suffer from this disease. Now, my family has no income and I am worried that I will not be able to support my family anymore.”
In his free time, Phyo Ko likes to play with his children. “When I recover, I will work hard to pay back my debt to the neighbours we borrowed the money from. I want to live with my family for a long time and I want to support my family,” he said.
