The ENT Doctor and Hello Kitty Devotee
– Dr. Ranee Siravisidporn –
For over 20 years, Dr. Ranee Siravisidporn, an ENT specialist at BNH Hospital, has treated mostly regular patients and new patients referred by her existing ones. As a result, she knows her patients very well and maintains excellent relationships with them. The life journey of this doctor, who wasn’t initially destined for medicine, holds fascinating stories and may be the very reason why her patients are so impressed that they feel compelled to spread the word.
A Life Not Initially Destined for Medicine
“My family didn’t have good health because our happiness revolved around eating, eating, and more eating, plus we didn’t exercise. My older relatives often suffered from various illnesses.”
As a child, Ranee saw her grandmother complain of leg pain daily. At the time, she didn’t know that these were symptoms of diabetes. She also saw her father frequently fall ill from overwork, unaware then that stress could cause sickness. No one in the family had medical knowledge, so no one understood the importance of self-care. Whenever they fell ill, they’d seek treatment from various sources – modern medicine, traditional medicine, buying different herbal remedies without knowing if they were truly effective. And because no one at home could offer health advice, Ranee, who grew up witnessing her family’s constant ailments, harboured a small dream of working in a field related to medicine.
The turning point that truly sparked Ranee’s interest in the medical field was an activity during her early secondary school years. The school had a policy encouraging students to volunteer after school, taking them to visit and care for patients in hospitals.
“I felt happy helping to care for the elderly, looking after children, and being in a hospital. From that moment, I set a goal: I wanted any job in a hospital. Whether it was a doctor, a nurse, or a pharmacist, as long as I could be in a hospital.”
Ranee’s dream of working in a hospital came true when she was admitted to the Faculty of Physical Therapy at Mahidol University. However, physical therapy required a lot of improvisation, which didn’t quite suit her temperament. Ranee considered quitting many times but persevered through her studies. By her third year, she began studying various diseases, which she thoroughly enjoyed.
Eventually, despite her initial reservations, Ranee graduated with a degree in physical therapy. It was then that a turning point arrived. A friend, who always knew she wanted to be a doctor, bought her an application form for the Faculty of Medicine at Thammasat University (Hospital Thammasat Chalermprakiat). This was a special programme for science and healthcare professionals with bachelor’s degrees to pursue another five years of study to become doctors. This allowed Ranee to finally study medicine, along with classmates who were dentists, pharmacists, veterinarians, scientists, and medical technologists.
“Each friend had their strong subject from their previous degrees, so we tutored each other. I tutored anatomy for my friends. Studying now, I was quite mature and had to be quite self-reliant. But because it was something I loved, there were no obstacles, even though the studies were incredibly intense. At that time, my skin was very pale because I didn’t get any sun. I woke up at 5 AM to dress patients’ wounds, then studied until 6 PM, and went home to read. If I was on call, it stretched till morning. Weekends were unheard of.”
And because it was a special curriculum, medical student Ranee gained extensive practical experience without having to wait until her final years. In her final year, she decided she wanted to specialise in Ear, Nose, and Throat (ENT), as it was a field that balanced internal medicine and surgery, allowing her to both converse with patients and perform operations. When she began her rural service at Khon Kaen University Hospital, Dr. Ranee expressed this aspiration, and her professors, seeing her dedication, offered her a scholarship to continue her specialisation at Rajavithi Hospital.
“During my rural service, I had so much fun. If being a medical student was fun, Khon Kaen was three times more enjoyable because there were so many cases, and it was just us. We had to tackle things ourselves, make decisions ourselves, do things ourselves. It was a life where I truly understood what it meant to be a doctor. Those three years were incredibly valuable to society. It was exhausting but joyful, and I made many friends. My peers from the same rural service batch even called me ‘Mum’ because I was older than them, but we were very close.”
Dr. Ranee worked in Khon Kaen for a while before permanently relocating to Bangkok to get married and care for her ailing father. This led her to start part-time work at BNH Hospital, eventually transitioning to full-time. To date, she has been there for over 20 years.
“BNH feels like home. The doctors here are lovely; everyone knows each other and is close like friends, so we can talk and consult on cases easily. It’s a very happy place to be. When discussing cases, there’s no formality, which makes teamwork easy. When patients have problems, we can provide holistic care. Often, we just chat during lunch and ask doctors from other departments to help look at a case. I have to thank BNH Hospital for providing a dining room for doctors; it greatly helps break down barriers. We come to drink coffee, share snacks, and discuss cases, helping each other. It’s such a lovely atmosphere.”
The ENT Doctor
Performing ENT surgery carries a high risk because all parts are located in the head, which contains many nerves. A mistake leading to complications could result in disability. However, in many instances, surgery is the patient’s only chance of survival, such as in Dr. Ranee’s challenging case of a patient with tracheal stenosis.
“The patient had to be on a ventilator for a long time. After removing the tube, their airway narrowed, making it difficult to breathe. We had to cut out that section of the trachea. During the surgery, the patient would have to stop breathing for a period, and after the operation, we had to be careful with the reconnected trachea, because if it tore, it would be very difficult. So, it was quite frightening for me, but we got through it.”
This was a case Dr. Ranee handled during her specialisation training. After encountering challenging surgeries frequently, the doctor’s stress lessened, whilst her meticulousness only increased with her flying hours. To this day, Dr. Ranee has many patients she is close to, like friends.
“Some patients had thyroid tumours; we performed thyroidectomy, which is a very common procedure for ENT doctors. But they were so impressed with our care that they encouraged all their relatives to come to me, even for conditions not related to ENT. Some things I couldn’t treat myself, so I’d talk to them and refer them to a specialist. But I’m touched that I only treated them once, yet they remembered me and still trusted me to care for those around them.”
Dr. Ranee’s Complete Care approach for patients begins by listening patiently, as she doesn’t allow time to be a limiting factor. As she gets to know patients better, it leads to observations and diagnoses of symptoms stemming from the patient’s lifestyle.
“Some patients would come every month because they frequently caught colds. After three or four times, I’d start to feel something wasn’t right. So, I’d have to discuss their work, if they had enough rest, their stress levels, if they slept well – I’d ask about everything. Then I’d help them analyse why they were ill and what lifestyle adjustments they needed to make to eliminate the root cause of the problem, so they wouldn’t have to keep coming to the doctor like this.”
From Dr. Ranee’s perspective, she often tries to make patients understand that their health is an investment in themselves. The doctor is merely a consultant who uses her experience to assist and recommend what is best for them. This explanation has led many of her patients to pay more attention to themselves and to self-care, rather than waiting to fall ill and then seeking help from a doctor, aligning with BNH Hospital’s Complete Care policy which focuses on prevention over treatment.
“Whenever I let a patient decide and they can’t, I’ll tell them directly, ‘If you were my sister, I’d recommend this. If you were my mother or father, I’d recommend this.’ I put myself in their shoes, using all my knowledge to give them the best possible advice. But I don’t force them; if they don’t believe me, they can find other options.”
The Secret to Happy and Healthy Living
The doctor’s method for managing happiness is not to let herself be excessively happy, a lesson learned from eating.
“Eating delicious food often is like harming yourself. Because if we eat tasty, sweet, fatty foods, it becomes harder to eat healthy food. There was a period when I didn’t eat any desserts, no flour, no sweets at all. Believe it or not, at that time, even eating vegetables tasted delicious. I had nothing to compare it to.”
Actually, Dr. Ranee doesn’t like healthy food at all. She used to be the ‘Queen of Eating’ and the ‘Queen of Desserts’.
Especially Thai desserts like plakrim kai tao (salty and sweet sticky rice flour dumplings in coconut milk) and tao suan (mung bean pudding with coconut milk) and thong yip, thong yod (golden flower and golden drop egg yolk desserts), which she loved so much that at one point her weight increased by 10 kilograms. The doctor then had to turn her attention to self-care, practising Pilates, finding healthy meal options, and reducing her cravings for famous restaurants.
“Now, I only go to famous delicious restaurants once a month. Mostly, I cook my own food, simple healthy meals like stir-fried vegetables, and steamed or grilled meat. Before, if I ate rice, I had to have dessert. Nowadays, I try to eat less dessert, only sometimes.”
Dr. Ranee successfully lost weight and maintains good health happily with this principle.
A Sanrio Devotee
Although being a doctor seems like a serious profession, Dr. Ranee has a personal hobby that is not serious at all; in fact, it’s quite cute.
“I love Sanrio; I love cute things. In my examination room, there used to be only Hello Kitty pictures. Looking at these cute things made me feel good, but the hospital asked me to remove them because they didn’t fit; they were too funny.”
When the doctor was a child, imported Japanese goods were too expensive for her to buy. All she could do was buy snacks with Hello Kitty designs.
“I was a marketing victim. If a box had a Hello Kitty face on it, I’d buy it. I didn’t know if the snacks inside were delicious; I’d just buy them first.”
Dr. Ranee’s love for Hello Kitty continued into adulthood. When she had money and went to Japan for the first time, her first destination was a Sanrio store. And it’s been the same every time she’s returned to Japan.
“When I go to Japan, I go to the Sanrio store first thing in the morning. I’d have my husband drop me off there. I’d be the first one to arrive and stay in the store all day. The store isn’t big, but I examine everything meticulously, and there are coin-operated games to play, so I can stay for a long time. I’d even eat my meals in there. I’d stay until I was the last person; they’d be closing the store, but I still wouldn’t want to leave.”
If you go into Dr. Ranee’s bathroom at home, you’ll see a large, prominent white Hello Kitty face on the toilet seat. This was a gift from her husband a long time ago.
“He was going to take me to look at diamond necklaces to buy as a gift, but I didn’t want one. I didn’t like them. I told him that just buying a Hello Kitty toilet seat cover would make me happy enough.”
Even nowadays, with the popularity of Art Toys, how could a lover of cute things like the doctor miss out? She also sits and waits to click to buy mystery boxes online. Famous items often sell out in three minutes, so lately, the doctor has found it hard to compete with other collectors.
Filipino Half-Caste
Dr. Ranee has a Thai appearance, but she is actually of mixed heritage.
“My mother was one of the first Filipinos to come to Thailand. Her personality is quite fun-loving, lively, and enjoys singing and dancing; not very serious. This is completely opposite to my father, who is a serious person. So, our home life was balanced.”
Dr. Ranee grew up in two cultures, with English as her first and primary language at home. This made her accustomed to mixing Thai and English, often being teased by friends when she was a child.
“My mother also loved practising writing Thai, but she only wrote at a Year 4 level. Whenever the teacher asked for our report cards, my mother would write in Thai, and I’d regularly get disciplined by the teacher, who thought I was forging my mother’s handwriting. Eventually, I had to ask my mother to write in English instead.”
Who knew that growing up in such a diverse environment would become a strength, enabling the doctor to care for patients of diverse ethnicities, religions, languages, and cultures, like those at BNH Hospital, with empathy and effectively bridging any gaps?
“Working is a form of learning. There’s nothing that’s truly ‘the best’; it’s only about how we can make things better than they were yesterday. We can learn from others – from patients, colleagues, even by observing how others do things, how things are done elsewhere. So, I see work as a continuous learning process and enjoy constantly improving and changing myself.”
Dr. Ranee’s genuine desire to become a doctor was strong from a young age because she had profound reasons behind it: for her family, for her patients, and to fulfil her own need to help people.
ทำนัดหมายแพทย์ออนไลน์ | Appointment
RANEE SIRAVISIDPORN, M.D.
พญ. รานี ศิระวิศิษฏ์พร
Speciality
Otolaryngology
Education
Medical Degree, Doctor of Medicine, Thammasat University, Thailand
Board and Sub board Certification
Thai Medical Council, Otolaryngology, Rajavithi Hospital
Certificate
BDMS Bylaws, BDMS, Thailand
Code of behavior (ENG), BDMS, Thailand
Code of behavior (TH), BDMS, Thailand
Language
English
Thai
Gender
Female
Schedule
Ear Nose Throat Department
| Day | Time |
|---|---|
| Monday | 09:30 - 19:00 |
| Tuesday | 09:30 - 16:00 |
| Wednesday | 09:30 - 16:00 |
| Thursday | 09:30 - 16:30 |
| Friday | 09:30 - 12:00 |
| Saturday | 09:30 - 12:00 |
| Sunday | - |
This is the doctor's regular weekly schedule. Actual availability may vary — please confirm the available date and time when you make an appointment.