Thai masseuse urges ‘fairness’ after new details emerge in singer’s death

A Thai therapist who apparently performed “neck-cracking” massages on the singer Chayada Prao-hom has asked for fairness over the case after an autopsy revealed Chayada’s death was not linked to health complications from the procedure.

Chayada, a singer of the northeastern Mo Lam style, died from septicaemia – a type of blood poisoning – at a hospital in northeast Thailand’s Udon Thani last Sunday.

The 20-year-old underwent three sessions at a massage parlour in Udon Thani in October to relieve neck pain and later claimed in a social media post that the treatment left her bedridden and caused numbness and weakness in her arms.

Last month, her condition worsened after a scan showed swelling in her brainstem and she spent days at a hospital’s intensive care unit before she died.

Provincial health chief Somchaichoti Piyawatvela said an autopsy found that Chayada’s death was due to a blood infection and a swollen spinal cord.

Public Health Minister Somsak Thepsutin said that the massage carried out on the singer was unconnected to her condition as a magnetic resonance imaging scan ruled out cervical bone fractures.