Mr. Bobby Keith Cliffton

Hey, my name is Bob Clifton. I'm from the United States, but we also have a home here in Surin. I worked in the construction industry basically my whole life. I was in the Army and learned to become an engineer for 25 years. Then from there, I went to work for the Army Corps of Engineers, where I retired.

I had had a near paralysis. My spinal cord, the... pinched really bad in the C2, C3, were pinching the spinal cord 50%. So my wife and sister-in-law insisted that I come to the hospital and get checked out and see what they could do, because I—I just thought it was just natural pain, nothing I could do about it. And—and I've always heard such good things about this hospital. So when I came in, they not only checked the neck issue that turned out to be very bad, they also checked my heart, bladder, kidneys... they checked everything. I mean, I had seven-doctor care while I was here. I'm so pleased with the work they did.

And the pains I had before, I wouldn't be sitting here talking to you—the pain was just too bad. And I just got... I think four days ago, three or 4 days ago, I had surgery and I'm able to sit here and talk with you guys. I've got to wear the collar because they cut all my muscles open in the back. They were so thorough and checked everything so well that with their blood test and everything, you couldn't ask for a better team.

I mean, Dr. Wicharn, he was so confident when he talked to me; there was absolutely no question in his mind, even though he and Dr. Hani said that the surgery they're doing on me is very rare and it's very high. They rarely ever have to deal with the C2 spine, and it was a critical position that they wouldn't let me even leave the hospital.

I'm already feeling so much better. Even the doctors are very surprised how quickly I'm recovering from this, because I'm—I'm just a few months from being 70 years old. So recovery at my age, I figured, you know, it's going to be a long, hard road, but I—I can see now it's not going to be; I'm going to bounce back.

Everybody that's come in here to deal with us has been so friendly and kind. So they're, I mean, they're incredible. I mean every one of the doctors came to the room and visited me every day. And they didn't just come in like, "How you feeling? Okay, good, see you." They—they literally sat here or stood there and had concern as they were talking with me. I—I told them when they came to the room that, "You guys are outstanding. I'm... I would... I would tell the world about you guys." Um, awesome surgeons, awesome care in the hospital. All right, thank you.