After the recent and tragic death of a 5 year old French boy on Koh Phangang, after a box jelly fish sting, the THA (Thai Hotel Association) Samui chapter took swift action and organized an awareness day for their hotel staff.
Box jelly fish sign in Thai
Due to my early experiences with box jelly fish on Chaweng Beach, dating back to 2003 and consequent write ups on my dive blog and this blog, I was in charge of organizing this day, where we had two presentations at two different locations.
The presentation in full swing at the Four Seasons Resort
The first presentation took place in the morning at the Four Seasons Resort and the second presentation took place in Rocky Boutique Resort.
With the help of Andrew Jones, who runs this excellent blog about box jelly fish, it was possibly to get Dr. Lakkana Thaikreua and Dr. Hataya Kanjanasombut to the presentations.
Basic CPR training at the Four Seasons resort
Dr. Lakkana is part of the Thai box jelly fish work group and I have met her during one of her early visist in this capacity on Koh Samui, already 4 years ago. She's one of the few Thai experts in the field of box jelly fish research. She was accompanied by Dr. Hataya.
Their trip also includes visits and discussions with the various hospitals around the island, which they are doing today. Their trip was subsidized by the BOE or Bureau of Epidemiology.
Attendees at Four Seasons Resort
The interest from the hotels round the island was overwhelming and we had full venues for both presentations, with a total over 80 attendees. Due to the success and demand, possibly more presentations may be in the making.
The presentation under way at Rocky's Resort
The fact that Dr. Lakkana could hold the presentations in the Thai language was a big bonus and most certainly helped in keeping the attention of the attendees. Most attendees had no previous knowledge of box jelly fish and yesterday's presentations helped tremendously with an awareness factor about the box jelly fish around Samui waters and also gave plenty of tips in respect to prevention and how to handle and deal with actual encounters.
Basic CPR training at Rocky's
Part of the training included basic CPR training. For this training the Bangkok-Samui hospital had two nurses available at each presentation who helped out with the training, which again proofed to be very useful since it was all done in Thai.
With thanks to 'Easy Divers', 'The Dive Academy' and 'Hoboya' dive centers for lending their CPR mannequins for this event.
Group picture of attendees at Rocky's
It's a good start to show that the hotels around Koh Samui are aware of the problem and are pro actively dealing with the problem, which in other parts of Thailand has been welcomed with very positive feedback from tourists.
Dr. Lakkana left and Dr. Hataya on the right
Connections have been made and hopefully this is a start in dealing with a problem that nobody wished they had to deal with, but with an open, head on attitude, as displayed by the hotels yesterday, awareness can be spread and the easy ways of preventing and dealing with the box jelly fish are slowly spreading around the island.
Big thanks to the General Managers of the Four Seasons Resort and Rocky Boutique Resort for offering their meeting rooms, it's much appreciated and thanks to the Samui chapter of the Thai Hotel Association for making this possible.
Ways to help you prevent box jelly fish injuries is with these stinger suits for young and old
Don't forget to use my Camille's Samui hotel recommendation blog and my Camille's Thailand hotel recommendation blog for all your hotel bookings on Koh Samui and around Thailand. By doing so, you will support my blog. Thanks folks!
Camille
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