01/23/2025
80yrs young today, Dr. Visespong Punyanitya (aka Pong) came to the U.S. in the early 70’s after finishing medical school in Chiang Mai, Thailand where he was also the drummer in a Beatles cover band called “The Idiots” 😂. He met his soon-to-be wife, Voranoot (aka Noot) during his residency in St. Louis and then they moved to Charlottesville soon after where they started work at University of Virginia. They opened their respective practices, (Pong, Orthopedics & Noot, OBGYN) in Charlottesville through Martha Jefferson Hospital and also in Bath County, VA. They started a family with the intention of moving back to Thailand but ultimately stayed in Charlottesville to build a life. He pioneered the implementation of minimally invasive spinal laser surgery and opened Charlottesville’s very first Thai restaurant with his sister, Janpim Little, called “Thai!” later selling it to our friends, the Keomahathai family, who opened the Thai 99 restaurant group. Some years later after Noot passed away, Pong met his now wife, Kay who knew him from the operating room at MJH and remarried in the mid 2000’s. After being diagnosed with liver cancer a few years later, Pong recovered and retired, but then got restless and decided to help a Thai friend open her own first restaurant which ignited Pong’s entrepreneurial bug. He’s still full of new ideas, overcomes challenges with intelligence, and is one of the most giving people around. If you have a memory with him, please share it so we can show him and please join us wishing him a happy happy birthday!