A new mother of twins, Mrs Akpesiri Ojiko has accused a private hospital in Warri, Delta State, Unique Health Medical Centre, of seizing one of the newborns over a bill of N383,500.
Akpesiri was delivered of the set of twins on November 17, 2022, at the General Hospital, Warri.
One of the babies was however moved to a private hospital after much persuasion by the public hospital, which told the reluctant parents that there was no bed space for one of the two babies.
The nursing mother said she had to bow to the pressure of the hospital after she had rejected several options due to the cost.
Akpesiri, while narrating her order, begged the Government of Delta State and other 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.
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“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.”
Reacting to the allegation, the owner of the hospital, who asked not to be named, squashed the accusations, lamenting that it was the family who abandoned the newborn.
The owner said the father of the babies, Mr Destiny Ojiko, who is a Keke operator, fled the hospital immediately a bill of N433,500 was presented, but later resurfaced.
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 owner also added that 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 on the modality of releasing the baby, we have not seen them,” he said.