18-yr-old nursing mother detained in Delta hospital over unpaid bills
Toyin Oluwagbemiga, an 18-year-old nursing mother, and her infant have been detained at the Trinity Hospital in the Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta State for the past five months.
Toyin, who is appealing to the Delta State Governor, Sheriff Oborevwori, and other spirited individuals to come to her aid, was held by the hospital management after she failed to make payment of her N537,800 medical bills.
According to reports, Toyin was put in the family way by one Joshua Cole, immediately after her Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) at Ekuigbo Grammar School – she, however, developed some complications during delivery, which took her to the Ekuigbo Community Health Centre in Ughelli.
With her condition perceived as critical, she was referred to the Ughelli Central Hospital, but her parents rushed her to Trinity Hospital, a nearby private health facility in Ughelli, where she eventually received care.
Unfortunately for Toyin, her parents absconded after the completion of a Caesarean section (CS) leaving her with the burden of medical bills.
When Vanguard visited the hospital, Dr. Bryian who spoke on the issue said, the hospital decided to keep Toyin until her medical bill, which is N537,800, is cleared.
He said one Toyin Joshua, (her card name) was transferred from the Ekuigbo Health Centre in Ughelli and brought to his Hospital unconsciously by a man and woman and others who claimed to be her parents and relatives with a referral letter probably to the Ughelli Central Hospital.
He added that he was in the Theatre room when she was brought in, but had to change his clothes to see her as her case was an emergency. He said when he saw the referral letter, he told them to go to the hospital they were referred to and even wrote another referral letter for them, but said all the people who brought her started crying and begging that he should attend to her.
According to him, “I didn’t want to attend to her because, she was already in a coma and I told them that the case was critical as she had convulsed twice and already having eclampsia, (a gynaecology term related to high blood pressure).
“I invited the mother and told her that with her condition, the placenta would need to be brought out at the moment, but also explained to her that if she is not handled carefully, she might just die in the theatre. I told the parents how much we would charge if she was to be handled at the hospital.
“But her relatives, I mean those that brought her, were arguing about taking her to the Central Hospital and all that, so I left and asked them to go with the referral letter I did, but they started pleading with me, and my wife who was around at the time. She (the doctor’s wife) prevailed on me to help them and that was I called the father or the uncle and told him how much we are charging, and he agreed to pay.”
He noted that based on his policy and how he was trained during his residency at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital UBTH, he had to ensure he saved her life by doing the needful in the first 24 hours and carried out the operation on her without her relatives depositing a dime.
“Can you imagine that after God helped all of us to bring the girl back to life and delivered her of the baby through the CS, the people that brought her, weeping profusely and begging that day, absconded because the girl in question is now well?
“She went into a coma and even the baby too was flat, but we had to use oxygen and others to revive both the mother and baby because their respiration was gone”
The soft-spoken Dr. Bryian said he has been so simple with his patients and does not bother whether one deposited anything before the commencement of treatment, but said, many have taken advantage of that gesture so many times.
While lamenting the treatment, Dr Bryian said, “What pains me most is that they send the girl and her baby feeding money even as she is here, but the parents and her people have refused to either call me or even visit the hospital to sort out things, but because they felt I am a small boy or a fool, they are not bothered.”
Visibly upset with so many things he has heard from people who are not abreast with what transpired, he said, ” I do not run a charity organization here. I pay bills and we do buy all the items, oxygen, drugs, diesel and pay for everything we use in treating patients, so why should they be treating me this way?”
Asked if Toyin’s husband has put a call through to him, he said he has not set eyes on any of them except the first day Toyin was brought and that the only money deposited was after the surgery and was just about Sixty thousand naira (N60,000).
The detained patient mother who looks so frail, and weak and carrying her five-month-old baby in the hospital lobby on the top floor, revealed that there is no way she could have ever blamed the doctor as he has really tried to bring her and her baby back to life.
“The man really tried for us. Even without any deposit, he commenced treatment because I was brought in unconscious.” She noted.
She described both the doctor and the staff at the hospital as people with good hearts.
She added, “The doctor is a very good man. He has tried for me and my baby, but the truth is that my parents don’t have money, that is why they abandoned me here .”
She said her mum is a petty groundnut hawker who lives Ughelli and trade in nice Warri daily to hawk groundnuts and said the meagre proceeds from her business was not even enough to feed the home, why did her father have no job and has since left Ughelli but didn’t disclosed where he travelled to.
Miss. Toyin a native of Ibadan town in Oluyole Local Government Area of Oyo State and a member of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Sunrise Parish Ekuigbo, broke down in tears as she narrates her ordeal.
Though she often condemned the attitude of her parents and relatives, but said it was not intentional as her mother and father had no money.
Asked about her supposed father of the child, whom she gave his name as Mr. Joshua Cole, a native of Ekuigbo, she said in a pathetic voice that he is denying the baby’s paternity but confidently insisted that she never dated any other man except him.
“When I was pregnant, all through the period, he used to come to our house, and we all related very well with both my parents and sometimes he gave me money, until the day I started convulsing when I went into a coma, everything just changed.”
She said Joshua was earlier arrested by her family when she was in a coma, but said she didn’t know how the matter was resolved as she was in a coma all through the period, and could not tell if that was why he is denying the paternity of the child.
Toyin lamented that she has seen real suffering in the past four to five months now, as she does not eat most of the days. She disclosed that she lives on gifts and charity given to her by patients and people coming to the hospital.
She pleaded with the Delta State government and Nigerians to help her pay the bills of N537,800 (Five Hundred, Thirty-Seven Thousand, Eight Hundred Naira) so that she and the innocent baby could regain their freedom.
For support, the Trinity Hospital is located at Akporigbe Street, Ughelli, Delta State.
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