Thai Princess Bajrakitiyabha Narendira Debyavati, who has been unconscious for nearly three years after collapsing due to a heart condition, is now being treated for a severe infection, the Bureau of the Royal Household said.
Doctors treating the 46-year-old princess, the oldest of King Maha Vajiralongkorn’s seven children, detected an infection in her bloodstream on August 9, the bureau said in a statement on Friday. She’s been administered different types of antibiotics and other medications to stabilise her blood pressure levels, the statement added.
Who is Thai princess Bajrakitiyabha Narendira Debyavati?
Some analysts saw Princess Bajrakitiyabha Narendira Debyavati as a potential heir to the throne before she slipped into a coma in 2022. If she succeeded, she would become Thailand's first female monarch.
73-year-old King Vajiralongkorn has not appointed an heir since taking the throne in 2016.
The princess is the daughter of the king’s cousin, who was the first of his four wives and the couple's only child. Born on December 7, 1978, in Bangkok, she was educated at Heathfield School, a prestigious all-girls school in England, as a teenager before earning two graduate degrees at Cornell University.
Princess Bajrakitiyabha has a law degree from Cornell University and has served as a diplomat to Austria, Slovakia, and Slovenia. She has also held roles at UN Women and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. The princess has also served in the attorney general’s office and holds the rank of general in the king’s Royal Security Command unit.
{{/usCountry}}Princess Bajrakitiyabha has a law degree from Cornell University and has served as a diplomat to Austria, Slovakia, and Slovenia. She has also held roles at UN Women and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. The princess has also served in the attorney general’s office and holds the rank of general in the king’s Royal Security Command unit.
{{/usCountry}}She largely stayed quiet on national politics, including the mass 2020 protests over monarchy reform.
The princess has been put on medical equipment to support the functions of her lungs and kidneys since her collapse in December 2022, according to the bureau. Doctors have occasionally detected infections, for which antibiotics have periodically been administered.