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Matthew Ochei
A private facility, Unique Health Medical Centre, Warri, Delta State, has been accused of seizing a newborn over a bill of N383,500.
PUNCH Metro gathered that a woman, Mrs. Akpesiri Ojiko, was delivered of twins on November 17, 2022, at the General Hospital, Warri.
It was learnt that one of the babies was taken to the private hospital due to a lack of bed space in the general hospital.
Mrs. Ojiko appealed to the Delta State Government and well-meaning Nigerians to assist her family in settling the medical bill.
She said, “I gave birth to two babies on November 17, 2022: a male and a female, at the General Hospital, Warri, but the hospital management told us that they did not have bed space to accommodate the babies and they could not keep the two babies on one bed.
“They started calling some clinics for referrals, but we refused because we knew some of those clinics; we told them that they were expensive and that we could not pay their bills.
“Finally, they referred us to Unique Health Medical Centre and we did not have any option but to go. The baby was to be discharged on November 27, 2022. But since we could not pay the bill, the hospital seized my baby.
“The bill is N433,500 before my sister brought N50,000. We need to pay the balance of N383,500 for my baby to be released.
“My baby is about a month and some weeks old; I have not set my eyes on her for a month now; they don’t even allow me to see her. Please I’m begging Governor Ifeanyi Okowa and others to help me.”
The father of the babies, Mr. Destiny Ojiko, a Keke operator, was said to have fled after seeing the N433,500 bill, but later resurfaced.
The owner of the hospital, who asked not to be identified, accused the family of abandoning the baby at the hospital.
He said, “We treated the baby on humanitarian grounds. We asked them to deposit N100,000 after everything; they brought N50,000 as a deposit and we did not mind.
“Our concern was to save the life of the baby, which we have done.
“The baby stayed 10 days in oxygen because she was born prematurely.
“As I speak, we don’t have the father’s contact; the number he filled in was for someone else. We have been calling them to come and let’s talk about the modality of releasing the baby, we have not seen them.”
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