Teen soccer captain who survived flooded cave in Thailand with team dies in UK
Duangpetch Promthep, also known as Dom, studied at the Brooke House College Football Academy in Leicester, England. He was also the captain of the Wild Boars team that was trapped in the Tham Luang cave in Chiang Rai province.
Watch: Rescuers reach trapped soccer team inside Thailand cave in 2018
This week marks the four-year anniversary of the dramatic rescue of 12 members of a soccer team and their coach from the Tham Luang cave in Thailand when the cave system flooded during an early start to the monsoon season.
LEICESTER, England – A 17-year-old who was part of a dramatic two-week rescue of his soccer team and coach from a flooded cave system in 2018 has died in the United Kingdom.
Duangpetch Promthep, also known as Dom, was the captain of the Wild Boars team trapped in the Tham Luang cave in Chiang Rai province.
The exact cause of his death is still unknown. However, early reports from the UK say the teen was found unconscious in his dorm room at Brooke House College Football Academy, a soccer academy in Leicester, England. He later died at a local hospital, Reuters reports.
RACE TO ESCAPE: HOW ANESTHESIA HELPED WITH SOCCER TEAM’S RESCUE FROM THAILAND CAVE
Thanaporn Promthep, mother of one of the 12 missing boys, displays an image believed to have been taken in 2017 of her son Duangpetch Promthep, nicknamed "Dom" (pictured second from right with light) and his football coach Ekkapol Chantawong, right, after hearing the news the group was found, near the Tham Luang cave at the Khun Nam Nang Non Forest Park in the Mae Sai district on July 2, 2018.
(LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA/AFP / Getty Images)
Supatpong Methigo, a Buddhist monk who used to teach the boys in Thailand's northern Chiang Rai province, shared the news of Promthep's death on social media.
"Duangphet Phromthep has gone to a good place, the place you wished for," Methigo posted on Facebook. "I hope that the dharma of the teacher who taught you will be with you everywhere and in the next life. I wish to be your disciple again."
Kiatisak Senamueang, former Thai national team captain and president of the Chico Foundation which helped Promthep finalize a scholarship for future studies, said his former student had a dream to be a professional soccer player and join the national team.
"Dom is a student of the teacher who is lovely, polite, gentle, kind," he said.
WATCH: RESCUERS REACH TRAPPED SOCCER TEAM INSIDE THAILAND CAVE
Promthep's team was trapped for 18 days between June 23 and July 10, 2018, and was eventually rescued with only minor injuries by a group of experienced divers.
Australian anesthesiologist and cave diver Dr. Richard Harris was one of the heroic cave divers who eventually helped lead the boys out to safety. He said the early start to the monsoon season was why the boys became trapped.
"It was the rain that caught the kids in the cave in the first place," he told FOX Weather last July on the four-year anniversary of the rescue. "That really defined the whole event."
Australian anesthesiologist, cave diver played crucial role in Thailand cave rescue
Dr. Richard "Harry" Harris, an Australian anesthesiologist and cave diver, joined FOX Weather to talk about the crucial role he played in help saving a Thailand soccer team who got stuck in a cave in 2018.
Harris said if it wasn't for the early monsoon, the children would have been able to walk straight out again the same way they got in.
"But the impending continuing rain was the factor in determining a very short timeline that we had to rescue the children," Harris said.
Initially, when the group entered the cave, there was no inclement weather around, and a sign outside the cave warned people that the period from July to November was the cave flooding season.
Twelve Thai boys and their football coach, rescued from a flooded cave after being trapped, attend a press conference in Chiang Rai on July 18, 2018, following their discharge from the hospital.
(LILLIAN SUWANRUMPHA/AFP / Getty Images)
Harris said the fear was that if divers tried to take the boys through this flooded cave with diving equipment, they would panic and drown themselves and the rescuers. One by one, the members of the soccer team and their coach were taken out of the cave and brought to safety.