THAILAND: MOTHER OF YOUNG GERMAN BOY TOM SOLDER THOUGHT TO HAVE BEEN KILLED BY TSUNAMI FOUND ALIVE IN PHUKET
Record ID:
647420
THAILAND: MOTHER OF YOUNG GERMAN BOY TOM SOLDER THOUGHT TO HAVE BEEN KILLED BY TSUNAMI FOUND ALIVE IN PHUKET
- Title: THAILAND: MOTHER OF YOUNG GERMAN BOY TOM SOLDER THOUGHT TO HAVE BEEN KILLED BY TSUNAMI FOUND ALIVE IN PHUKET
- Date: 29th December 2004
- Summary: (W3) PHUKET, THAILAND (DECEMBER 29, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. TOM SODLER, 7-YEAR-OLD GERMAN BOY WHO THOUGHT HE LOST HIS FAMILY, SITTING WITH WOMAN WHO FOUND HIM IN HOSPITAL, MARION VOSS; SCU SODLER'S FACE WITH SCRATCHES; SCU SODLER'S ARM IN A SLING; MV SODLER SITTING IN HOSPITAL (4 SHOTS) 0.25 2. (SOUNDBITE) (German) TOM SODLER SAYING: "I lost my gameboy" 0.33 3. (SOUNDBITE) (English) MARION VOSS SAYING: "He was on the beach and he run to the bungalow where he stayed and then he was about one hundred metres away from the beach and then the water came and swept him up. And he said he swim, 'I go to the water and swim', and he's a good swimmer that's good for him." 0.56 4. SODLER AND VOSS; SCU SOLDER 1.01 5. (SOUNDBITE) (English) VOSS SAYING: "He only cried when they got on his arm. He told all the time 'when I get to Germany, I find my mother'." 1.14 6. WS/MV: SURVIVORS IN HOSPITAL BEDS (2 SHOTS) 1.22 7. MARION VOSS AND HER BOYFRIEND ANDRES BIRKO; MV VOSS AND BIRKO SITTING ON HOSPITAL BED (2 SHOTS) 1.32 8. VOLUNTEER ON TELEPHONE IN FRONT OF BOARD WITH PHOTOGRAPHS OF MISSING PERSONS; SCU PHOTOS OF THE MISSING ON BOARD (2 SHOTS) 1.42 9. MV DESK WELCOMING PEOPLE LOOKING FOR RELATIVES AND FRIENDS; MV FAMILY LOOKING FOR RELATIVES (2 SHOTS) 1.53 10. STAFF HELPING RELATIVES WORKING ON COMPUTERS; MV ANOTHER STAFF MEMBER TALKING TO RELATIVES/ BOARD WITH PHOTOS OF THE MISSING (2 SHOTS) 2.05 Initials EDIT DOES NOT SHOW FOOTAGE OF TOM SODLER'S MOTHER Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 13th January 2005 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: PHUKET, THAILAND
- Country: Thailand
- Reuters ID: LVA36H29LXXTANX4QRZOE3NBH35N
- Story Text: Mother of young German boy found.
Hospital staff in the Thai island of Phuket thought
that seven-year-old Tom Sodler had lost his parents in the
tsunami.
But thanks to one German couple's efforts to locate his
family in Germany they found out that his mother was still
alive in Pang Nga, north of Phuket.
Marion Voss and her boyfriend Andres Birko met Sodler
at another hospital where staff asked for anyone speaking
German. The German couple immediately took him under their
wing.
Thinking his parents had died in the quake they decided
to take him back home.
Voss asked her mother to find out where his family were
staying. Tom, who lives in Beinheim, near Friedberg, only
knew his own home number and could not tell them which town
the rest of his family were from.
Miraculously, Voss's family found Tom's grandmother.
She said her daughter, Tom's mother, had phoned home and
was alive.
But Voss says Tom does not realise that he will
probably never see his father again.
Asked what he had lost in the tsunami Tom smiles.
"I lost my gameboy," he says.
Voss said Tom was a very strong boy and that his
swimming skills had saved him.
"He was on the beach and he run to the bungalow where
he stayed and then he was about 100 metres away from the
beach and then the water came and swept him up. And he said
he swim, 'I go to the water and swim', and he's a good
swimmer that's good for him," she said.
Tom had a deep cut in his arm which then got infected. Doctors at
the Phuket Bangkok hospital operated on him.
That was the only time Voss saw him cry. She said she
admired his courage.
"He only cried when they got on his arm. He told all
the time 'when I get to Germany, I find my mother,'" Voss
said.
Hundreds of families have been torn apart by the
Tsunami which sucked many people back into the sea as the
huge wave receded or spat them out in all directions.
Tom is lucky to have found his mother, thanks to the
young couple, but he has yet to face up to the fact his
father has not yet been identified.
Rescue teams are still scouring the beaches of Thailand
in the hope of finding more survivors.
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