Hospital detains twin baby, mother appeals for financial help to retrieve infant
By Jeph Ajobaju, Chief Copy Editor
A private medical facility in Delta has seized a newborn baby over the inability of the parents to pay N383,500 charged for saving the life of the infant who was referred there because of shortage of bed space at the General Hospital where it was born.
The distraught mother has appealed to Delta Governor Ifeanyi Okowa and compassionate members of the public across the country to help offset the bill so she could retrieve the baby she has not seen for four weeks.
Akpesiri Ojiko is a housewife and her husband a tricycle taxi operator.
She was delivered of twins at the General Hospital, Warri but one of them had to be taken to Unique Health Medical Centre in the city because there was no enough bed space at the general hospital.
“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,” Ojiko narrated to The PUNCH.
“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 than 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 was 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.”
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Hospital accuses family of abandoning baby
Ojiko’s husband, Destiny, initially fled after seeing the N433,500 bill but later resurfaced.
The owner of Unique Health Medical Centre, who asked not to be identified, accused the family of abandoning the baby at the hospital.
“We treated the baby on humanitarian grounds. We asked them to deposit N100,000 after everything; they brought N50,000 as deposit and we did not mind,” he told The PUNCH.
“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 premature.
“As I speak, we don’t have the father’s contact; the [telephone] number he filled 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.”