A fact-finding panel has been set up to investigate the death of a Hungarian man while he was being detained at Suvarnabhumi airport for overstaying his visa.

Laszlo Balogh, who was arrested on Saturday, died the next day after spending just a night in a cell at Suvarnabhumi Airport police station. Balogh apparently suffered from diabetes.

Police said he was sleeping normally in his cell on Saturday evening before being found dead in the morning.


A doctor who conducted the initial examination of his body suspected the 60-year-old might have died of an age-related disease, Pol Col Kissana Phathanacharoen, deputy spokesman of the Royal Thai Police, said yesterday.

A probe is usually required if a suspect dies during police detention. However, he said, to provide full transparency as well as a clear answer on the cause of the death to Balogh’s family, a special team would conduct the probe.


Suvarnabhumi airport police chief Natthaphon Komintharachat has already appointed a team of investigators.


“If the death is linked with a careless error by officers, they will face both disciplinary and criminal action,” Pol Col Kissana said.

By law, an inquest jointly conducted by police, prosecutors and administration officials must be completed within 90 days.

According to the preliminary examination, Balogh suffered diabetes, but experts have yet to conclude the disease led to his death.

https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/ge ... cial-probe

"Cant blame immigration for doing their job.. It is what it is...."

Right, 60yo man dies of old age/disease in Thai immigration detention centre. Carry on, nothing to see here.

I guess the lesson here is don't overstay your visa if you have diabetes?

So what happens if a foreigner dies in immigration detention in the Kingdom of Wonder?

Full investigation?

Or the do the cops come and pronouce ‘heart attack’?

handonheart wrote: ↑Sun Feb 02, 2020 12:53 am I guess the lesson here is don't overstay your visa if you have diabetes?

If you have type one diabetes and take too much insulin in comparison to what you eat, then in the worst case, you could die due to acute low sugar levels in your brain. Your brain needs a constant supply of oxygen and sugar, remove either leads to more or less instant death. In most cases when a type one goes critically low on sugar, it triggers various stress hormones in the body, which boosts the sugar level somewhat, therefore usually you don't die right away from critically low sugar.

Not getting insulin, has no devastating short term effect, so if you get arrested or something and don't get your meds for a couple of days, your sugar levels will rise, and this has bad long term effects, such as clogging up your finer blood vessels, kidneys and retinas are usually the first critical functions to collapse if the sugar levels are consistently too high. But this process would take quite a while like several months or more, to lead to retina or kidney failure, etc. So it's bad to not get your insulin, and worse the longer it goes on, but a high level is never immediately life-threatening.

It always surprises me that so many seem to think that you could die right away if you don't get insulin. It's overdosing it compared to sugar intake that can lead to a critical condition, and in the absolutely worst case (though rarely) to death. By overdosing your insulin, too much sugar is picked up in the rest of the body and what is left for the brain to consume, is not enough to sustain it.

Think of it a bit like smoking, eventually it will cause cancer, but you don't really know when it will happen. If you are lucky your lungs have an initial life expectancy of 200 years. By being a smoker you reduce it to 90, so if you die from something else before 90 smoking won't kill you. If your lungs have a life expectancy of 70 years, and you smoke it down to 40, then there is a high likelihood that cancer will end your life. Life is unfair in the sense that some are genetic winners when it comes to how long your lungs will work, but smoking always lower how long they will last. If your a winner so to say you die from something else before your lungs get you.

High sugar levels are similar, sooner or later your kidneys/retinas will fail, but as of today it's hard to say how much you can fail with your sugar levels until those body functions fail on an individual basis. They will fail much sooner than the typical smoker lung, so its something you need to keep careful track of much more if you want to keep those things working all your life. But short term it is NOT life-threatening with a high sugar level, just rather bad for your body.

So anytime your type one diabetic friend starts acting irritated (a typical side effect of low sugar) or otherwise irrational you should always try to get them to eat or drink something sweet. This can sometimes be rather challenging, since if you are a type one, and people suggest you should eat/drink something, deep down you know that they are right, but due to pride and such you often get defensive "I know when I need more sugar, don't try to tell me what to do", remember the irritated/irrational part...

If you misjudged the situation, you will cause a bit of extra wear and tear on their finer blood vessels of your friend, but it won't kill them there and then. Low blood sugar can in rare cases. And remember if they are unconscious already, NEVER EVER try to pour coca-cola, etc. down their throats, it will likely end up in the lungs and instead suffocate them. Then you need to call emergency services, so they can inject sugar solution (the ones I know of are D50, D10 or D5W, but I'm sure there are others) into their bloodstream. This is typically also given to patients that can't eat, like if they are unconscious or sedated for more than a couple of hours in order to keep them going, so should be available at any emergency care. Not a fancy first world procedure.

I'm a type one, and its like a constant uphill battle to explain to my friends that low, not high blood sugar is the thing that can cause short term issues. This is also why I sometimes if I'm already hungry and go to a restaurant and the service is dead slow, I sometimes have to bail to go eat or drink something right away to keep me going until dinner is served. Something that most people around you fail to understand. Why did you run out to get a mars bar, if a nice upscale dinner is about to be served???

The pertinent question is why was he detained for simply overstaying his visa. The length of the overstay is not mentioned.

Did he not have the money to pay the fine? Was he not allowed accessed to withdraw the money from an ATM or contact someone for assistance?

sigmoid wrote: ↑Sun Feb 02, 2020 12:41 pm The pertinent question is why was he detained for simply overstaying his visa. The length of the overstay is not mentioned.

Did he not have the money to pay the fine? Was he not allowed accessed to withdraw the money from an ATM or contact someone for assistance?

I think the pertinent question is why he died after a single night in the detention center. The rest is just background information. If you are ill and within 24 hours of death it should be obvious. If you are not ill then a sudden unexplained death is an anomaly unless of course a heart attack. While I am not blaming immigration for his death, of course, it is out of the ordinary. If anything I applaud a rather transparent move by Thai standards, that is to have an independent inquest. Almost as if this country is slowly being dragged into the 20th century and yes I am aware the 20th century ended 20 years ago. When one is in custody, the custodian has a responsibility to ensure ones health and well being.