He was one of the 'Thai cave boys' who survived the impossible. Then earlier this year, he died aged 17.

In 2018, people around the world held their breath as 12 boys and their assistant soccer coach were rescued from a flooded cave complex in Thailand. 

The team and their coach — who were believed to have entered the cave for an 'initiation ceremony' — became trapped after it started to rain, and floodwater came rushing into the mouth of the cave. 

By day nine, the boys hadn't been located and most experts were convinced they would not survive. Even once they were found and a rescue plan was devised, diver and anaesthetist Richard Harris was certain it was "doomed to fail". 

During his time trapped in the cave, captain of the Wild Boars soccer team Duangphet 'Dom' Phromthep turned 13. Thai navy seals exchanged letters between the boys and their parents, and Dom wrote, "I’m fine but it’s a little bit cold."

"Don’t worry," he wrote, "and don’t forget my birthday."

His mother Noy had been terrified, waiting outside the cave for updates.

But 18 days after they first entered the cave, all 12 boys and their coach made it out alive. 

It was a story that spoke to the indomitable nature of the human spirit. One of the rare tales of disaster that seemed to have a near-universal happy ending. 

But for the survivors, life changed after the rescue. 

"I got the same child back when he came home from hospital, but he was different with strangers," Noy told The Australian in an interview last week.

Then in February this year, she lost her son for a second, and final, time. 

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In August 2022, Dom and his teammates celebrated when he won a scholarship to join the Brooke House College Football Academy in the UK. 

"Today my dream has come true," he wrote on Instagram.

The people who loved Dom were excited for him to leave behind the spectacle created by the rescue, and pursue the dream he'd had since he was a child: to play for Thailand's national football team. 

Dom left in September for his boarding school scholarship. 

Just a few months later, his mum would be watching his funeral from her family's market stall by video link, unable to travel to attend in person. 

The 17-year-old was found unconscious in his room at the Brooke House College Football Academy in Leicestershire on February 12, and died in hospital two days later. No family were with him. Noy told The Australian a doctor held a phone to her son's ear, and she whispered Buddhist prayers from the other side of the world.   

The boys while trapped in the cave. Dom is in the centre. Image: ABC. 

Police have said the teenager's death was not suspicious, and a coroner's report is due to be published next month. 

On Facebook, a post read, "May Dom's soul rest in peace". Below, his teammates — the ones he'd survived the impossible with — left messages for their friend. 

"You told me to wait and see you play for the national team, I always believe that you would do it," wrote Prachak Sutham.

"When we met the last time before you left for England, I even jokingly told you that when you come back, I would have to ask for your autograph," wrote another.

"Sleep well, my dear friend. We will always have 13 of us together."

The Principal of Brooke House College, Ian Smith, said in a statement that they were "deeply saddened and shaken" by Dom's death.

"We unite in grief with all of Dom's family, friends, former teammates and those involved in all parts of his life, as well as everyone affected in any way by this loss in Thailand and throughout the college's global family," he said.

In March, Dom's funeral rites were performed over two days in a temple in northern Thailand. All 11 Wild Boars and their former coaches came to farewell their captain, saying their final prayers less than 10km from the cave they had once been rescued from. 

For his mother Noy, Dom's death has made her re-evaluate the impact of the cave rescue on her teenage son. Because after the day he was safely guided out of the Tham Luang Cave by expert cave divers, his life was never the same. 

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"When people came to buy something from the shop they would say, ‘Is Dom home? Can I see Dom? I want to talk to him’," Noy told The Australian. 

"So many people wanted to see him. Old people, kids, all ages. They would take photos and talk to him. I could see him stiffen up and his face would change. I wanted to protect him from that uncomfortable feeling."

Dom hadn't wanted attention or fame, and it wasn't something any of the survivors of the Thai cave rescue had sought out.  

One year on from the rescue, Noy told SBS, "I am very proud of [Dom]. He did not change. He still wants to become a professional player. 

"When he's back from school he is meeting his old friends and they are still playing together as a team."

One of the coaches of the Wild Boar team said, "The kids are still the same even though their lives have completely changed. They still obey the coaches. No one shows off their new-found fame."

It's reported the boys and their coach received about $100,000 AUD each for their story from Netflix, after the streamer bought the rights to dramatise the events. 

The money and the fame, however, was rumoured to foster jealousy in the local community. 

Speaking to The Australian, assistant coach Ekkapol Chantawong said the events of 2018 remain, "the worst thing that has ever happened in my life because it was like being trapped between life and death.

"If I could choose, I would go back to the time when I lived a normal life. Most of us (Wild Boars) think the same way."

At a time where so many young people actively seek fame and notoriety, and the money associated with it, the Thai cave boys had that life thrust upon them against their will. Suddenly, their experiences were in the public interest, everyone knew their names, and there were offers of book and film deals and lucrative speaking engagements. 

Three members of the team, and their coach, were stateless at the time of the rescue. The fact they weren't Thai citizens meant they weren't afforded basic benefits and rights, such as the right to vote, buy land, seek legal employment or travel outside the province where they lived.

These were not boys prepared for media attention. 

And for Noy, it seems the loss of her son has clarified how the last years of his life were painted by an experience he didn't choose to have. 

After the rescue, Dom's grandmother told Reuters, "the world is watching". 

"He was trapped in a cave and everyone in the country and from around the world had to come and help him. What do we have to give them in return?

"We have nothing, so he must be a good boy."

The pressure on the boys to live an extraordinary life - one that had been worth saving — must be immense. 

Dr. Andrea Danese of the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College in London said after the rescue, "Intense media scrutiny might act as a reminder of their traumatic experience and prevent them from settling back to normal life".

Most of all, it seems impossibly cruel for a boy to have escaped an unimaginable trauma, to have faced circumstances so dangerous they captured the world's attention, to then have his life end prematurely just a few years later.

It's a stark reminder that once the spotlight moves off a news story, the lives of those involved continue. They're likely never the same, and happy endings are often more complicated than they seem. 

Feature image: ABC