An inquest into the death of Duangphet ‘Dom’ Phromthep — not attended by his family or friends, nor any members of the Press — has put some question marks on the mystery of his death.
He first survived
In a statement last month, Leicester coroner Professor Catherine Mason said that the boy who miraculously survived for two hellish weeks in that cave, along with 11 teammates and his coach, had been found unconscious at Brooke House College, in Market Harborough, on February 12.
Though attempts were made to resuscitate him, he had died in hospital two days later. She gave the cause of his injury, which was chosen not to report.
Why suicide just after 5 months he had his life figured out?
The coroner added: ‘Mr Phromthep was not known to mental health services, and it is not known why he took the actions that he did. It could not have been foreseen or prevented. The police have found no evidence of third party involvement or suspicious circumstances.’
The college was equally circumspect, choosing not to explain — if, indeed, they had any answers — why he might have sunk into despair, just five months after embarking on the English soccer scholarship that was the stuff of his dreams.
In his statement, principal Ian Smith said he would not discuss the incident publicly ‘out of respect for Dom and his family’s wishes’.
A lot of questions need to be answered
He highlighted the ‘high quality of our student care, welfare and safeguarding’, reiterating that the suicide had been unavoidable.
Yet surely this poignant story ought not to just quietly slip away?
There must be some explanation for the lonely suicide of a young man whose smiling face, caught in the light of a rescuer’s torch, touched the hearts of millions back in the summer of 2018.
A teenager whose against-all-odds deliverance restored our belief in the indomitability of the human spirit.
Could it be that ‘trauma was the reason’ he committed suicide?
Last week, speaking to those closest to Dom in Thailand and Britain, David Jones of DailyMail went in search of the answer.
Perhaps the most obvious possibility is that he was for ever traumatised by experiences in that dank, echoing cave.
Trapped for a fortnight by the rising floodwater, when he and his friends quickly ran out of food, they survived by licking the water drops from stalactites.
Past week, expert cave rescuer Rick Stanton, the former Coventry firefighter who carried Dom to safety (and received the George Medal for his gallantry) gave me an insight into the heart-stopping mission that freed them.
As the boys had never used scuba equipment before and needed to negotiate more than a mile of narrow flooded tunnels, they had to be anaesthetised so they did not panic.
They were then strapped to gurneys, bound hand and foot, fitted with oxygen tanks and facemasks, before being fastened to the divers.
