King Bhumibol Adulyadej of Thailand, who is also known as King Rama IX, is in unstable condition, according to the palace in a statement released late Sunday. The King had been receiving hemodialysis treatment. King Bhumibol Adulyadej is widely revered and news on his health is closely followed by those in Thailand.
His Majesty was treated on Saturday and given hemodialysis, which cleanses the blood and caused his blood pressure to drop. He was put on a ventilator and given medicine to bring his blood pressure back to normal. The palace said they are continuing to monitor his condition closely but, “His condition has yet to stabilize.”
Thailand has strict laws that prohibit the discussion of the King’s health in public. The palace does not usually comment on the monarch’s health being unstable. They choose to usually only report when the King’s condition has improved or is recovering from some illness.
His Majesty has been treated for a variety of different illnesses over the past year and was last seen in public on 11 January when he visited his palace in Bangkok for a few hours.
It was just on 1 October that the palace had released a health update stating His Majesty was recovering from a respiratory infection.
In 2011, his daughter Princess Chulabhorn admitted in a rare televised interview that her father had had a health scare when he fell unconscious from internal bleeding, likely from stress from the flood crisis in that year.
The 88-year-old is the world’s longest reigning monarch. He took the throne on 9 June 1946 after the murder of his brother, King Ananda Mahidol.
King Bhumibol Adulyadej was born on 5 December 1927 at Cambridge Hospital in Cambridge, Massachusettes, USA. His father was studying at Harvard University at the time of his birth. King Bhumibol Adulyadej is the only monarch to be born in the United States. He married Queen Sirikit in 1950, and they have four children together: Princess Ubolratana Rajakanya, Crown Prince Maha Vajiralongkorn, Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, and Princess Chulabhorn Walailak.
