Red Eye: Premature baby detained over unpaid medical bill

A failure to pay baby's medical bills appeared a cause for headache for a couple who had earlier lost a child.

A newborn baby has been held captive at the Inton Hospital, Lagos, over an unpaid medical bill.

According to Punch News, Mr Michael and Mrs Roseline Oaikhena, the parents of the infant reportedly owe the health center a sum of N650,000, as payment for treatment received over a 3-month period.

 

Punch gathered that the baby, Ighodalo was born prematurely alongside a twin sibling who already passed away.

“My wife and I have been married for about two years. When she conceived, she went through a lot of stress due to the nature of her job and at a point, a doctor advised her to go for bed rest.

“She gave birth at the Ifako General Hospital when the pregnancy was about six months. We were unable to get an incubator at the hospital and our search for one in Lagos public hospitals proved abortive.

“She gave birth around 1pm and when we could not find any public hospital with an incubator, we settled for Inton Hospital. We got there around 11pm; their bill was N300,000 per week.

“However, after a week, we lost the female baby and we started paying N150,000 per week.

"The surviving baby has now been moved from the incubator to a nursery, where he has been for over three months," Michael Oaikhena shared in a chat with Punch News.

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Mr Akeem Mustapha, the Chief Medical Director at Inton denied rumours reporting that the hospital planned to take surrender Ighodalo to an orphanage.

 

The director described this as an attempt at getting pity from the press but also urged Punch correspondents to pay the outstanding balance.

This was gathered in a report by the news platform.