This is a true story but a bit off beat, James Howard from England would proudly tell everyone of his little adventure with his two beloved sons. James is 82 years old who lives with his wife Jean who is 79 years old. James has some sort of muscular disease where he can’t stand for a long period and sat mostly on wheel chair, he was only 48 years old when diagnosed with this disease.

Not long ago, the department of social service sent someone to install a chair in his shower where it can be pulled down from the wall for him to sit when he’s in the shower, which he absolutely loves. Now he can sit in his shower without having to rush.

One evening, his wife helped him into the shower stall as usual and he sat comfortably on his new chair. His wife helped wash him with soap as usual. As he was enjoying his steaming shower, James felt something strange, sort of like a painful sensation but he wasn’t sure where it was coming from. He couldn’t get out from his chair. His wife kneeled down on the floor and looked underneath his chair; she couldn’t control herself and busted out with laughter. She was in tears and told her husband that his two beloved sons were in the water drainage hole, not just one but both corporate with each other and squeezed down the same hole (the chair has several small round holes for water drainage.) His wife tried her best to free them but they wouldn’t budge, she even put some ice there hoping that it’ll shrink down some, but that didn’t help.

His wife didn’t know what to do, so she called a nurse from a nearby clinic and shortly after that, she heard a knock at the door, not one but two nurses came. They tried their best to help get it out by lubricating it with soap but it seems to have done the opposite, now his beloved sons were swollen and the pain was unbearable. The two nurses shook their heads and felt helpless and they decided that they needed help. James was a bit embarrassed by now, thought to himself, why not just open the front door, and let everyone in to see him this way.

Shortly after that, his wife heard sirens, she rushed to the front window, and to her surprised, seems like the whole town emergency department came. She called out to her husband, ‘Oh Dear, I think the whole town came.’ Outside was two EMS vehicles, a police vehicle, and a fire truck, all had their sirens on. All emergency team came in-group of four; all rushed through the front door except for the police officers where they had to tell bystanders to stay clear of the front door, otherwise his neighbors would’ve been in there too. Now, James was embarrassed, he felt like he was doing some sort of show or magic trick and has all these audience.

One firefighter smiled and said, ‘We have to give him a new chair, this one doesn’t seem to work very well.’ James didn’t think it was funny, his little buddies began to swell up, and the pain was unbearable. The EMS personnel told him that they’d get him out somehow. James told them that there’s two ways, one was to cut the chair out, or another was to cut his two beloved sons’ neck out, what ever they wanted to do, just do it fast.

Finally, the firefighters unscrewed the chair out, lay James and the chair on the floor, and gently cut the chair to free him. It didn’t take that long, James and his two beloved sons were free from that chair. Everybody were relieved; the EMS personnel examined James and his beloved sons to see if they were okay. They told him that his sons were fine and should return to normal in a couple of hours.

Currently, James has a new chair for his shower stall, but the holes are a lot smaller, and James is much happier; thanks to the social service department for their understanding.

Original source: Koosang Koosom Magazine by Chaie Phanpath, written in Thai Language, translated by Nye