Stories of the daily life of a Buddhist nun and stories of life’s experiences before being ordained.

by Margo Somboon

Of Elephant and Men

Facing Tuberculosis

It was approximately 8 years ago… I was working in a large elephant camp in Thailand, looking after 8 mother elephants with their babies, and 2 older elephants. Physically this amount of work almost destroyed me. Both of my legs were swollen and I was always tired, and yet I was accused of being lazy.

When the situation became unbearable, I had no choice but to relinquish caring for the mothers and babies and only concentrated on the 2 adults that were already in my care. This went on for some months, and yet I was unable to get Phi Khun Tong to put on any weight. If anything, her condition seemed to be deteriorating. None of us realized at the time, that she was having difficulty breathing through her trunk. She was still a fairly young elephant of 35 years, who had come from the Northern part of Thailand. Her personality was such that she absolutely adored her mahout, but would not hesitate to attack another elephant, even if that elephant was much bigger than she was. She especially did not like the bull elephants!!

Under my care, she was continuously losing weight, so much so that it was decided that a vet from the elephant hospital would be called to examine her. At the time I knew nothing about TB, even in humans, having never been exposed to it in any form. A trunk-wash had to be done to determine what was wrong with her, together with various other tests. This was a major dilemma. Eight other mahouts were called to help with this procedure. Apart from chaining up all 4 legs, her trunk also had to be restrained with the use of chains. Pouring sterile saline solution into her trunk was only part of the dilemma. We then had to get her to blow whatever was in her trunk, into a sterile plastic bag. To cut a long story short, the boys were exhausted at the end of this ordeal.

Unfortunately until today, this is the only way to obtain a sample of whatever is in that trunk. This solution is then taken to the laboratory in Lampang, to grow a sample of whatever we got. The full process takes 3 months to complete and there is no such thing as ex-rays or other means of testing, for elephants.

Unfortunately Phi Khun Tong didn’t have that much time. She deteriorated very quickly and was taken to Lampang Elephant Hospital, where she ended up receiving almost 100 bottles of glucose i/v. Everything that could be done, was being done at the hospital. After a few days, she no longer recognized her mahout and deteriorated steadily. As a last desperate measure, a blood-sample was sent for testing. Unfortunately even this required 4 days and we had the weekend in between. Time was a luxury that was not on our side. After 5 days at the hospital, she died. It was only after her death that it was confirmed that she did indeed have TB.

I returned to Ayutthaya and went to the temple to do a sangatan for her. According to Buddhist tradition in Thailand, elephants are the only animals where monks are on hand to chant before they are buried. This has to do with the elephant being very highly evolved on the list of evolution. After a month, prayers were completed at the elephant prayer house. This would free her spirit to pursue whatever she was meant to do…

Meanwhile, I was checked for TB and initially found clear of it. It wasn’t until a year later that I also showed up positive. The simplicity of testing humans awed me, especially after having witnessed the difficulty in elephants. I was under treatment for some time, when I ended up with an extremely swollen right leg that started to emit fluids. Walking or moving around was most painful. By this time I was unemployed and staying at a different elephant camp with a mahout and his family.

The GM of the camp permitted me to stay on the condition that I get that leg checked out at any hospital. By then I had no choice but to admit that I was unemployed and hardly had any money left. In short, my life had hit the bottom. The manager then took me to see a doctor at a clinic. They refused to deal with it, saying that this was far too advanced and that I needed help from a hospital. I was taken to the hospital on Sunday morning and was immediately hospitalized. At 8pm I was wheeled into the operating room. That 1st night already cost my boss 20,000 baht!!!

The next day my boss and his wife sat and talked to me about going public with this. This entailed sending an email to friends, describing my condition and situation. This email would eventually be circulated to many people. Through the help of many Thai people, I was finally able to pay for one month hospitalization, 2 surgeries and after-care. That still wasn’t the end of the story. Both the hospital staff and the University students were very proud of my case. I eventually discovered that what I had contracted was a nasty piece of business called Pseudomonas Aeriginosa. Most people don’t survive this and neither do the elephants that get it. No wonder the hospital staff was so pleased!! Not only did I survive, I didn’t require leg amputation either!!

This experience has made 2 things very clear.

First of all, I am now fairly certain that TB medication destroys the immune system, making one susceptible to anything that goes around. In an attempt to fight this, a dear friend has sent me high dosage Vitamin D3 to improve immunity.

Due to the heavy floods last year, TB has returned to plague me. Now it is truly up to my karma, which will now take over the outcome. What I can do, I have already done.

This is indeed the second item that becomes very clear….karma.  Don’t laugh….in the end we are all the product of our karma. This is the last part that needs to play itself out. The fact that I have spent time and money, saving baby birds and re-releasing them when they were ready, just might be the determining factor that may extend my life to make more merit….

In the end, make no mistake…..whatever you do will come back in the form of karma. That is why Buddhists are generally not vindictive…..after all, karma will get the culprits.

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Margo Somboon is an ordained Nun in the oldest temple in Thailand; she speaks of herself: “Nearly 30 years with horses, another 10 with elephants, now it’s time to train myself. I’ve been an ordained Buddhist Nun now for 3 years”  http://blogspot-mook.blogspot.com/