3rd September, 2014
Jethro Ibileke/Benin
A Delta State-based fashion designer, Godswill Echenim, has appealed to the state government in southern Nigeria, and the general public to help prevail on the management of Group Christian Medical Centre, Asaba, to release his wife and a set of triplets allegedly detained by the hospital over N723,100 unpaid medical bill.
Echenim, a resident of Owa-Alero, a local community in Ika North East Local Government Area of the state, whose wife was delivered of the set of triplets in July, alleged that their predicament was a fallout of the nationwide strike declared by the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA).
He said the strike by doctors in government hospitals made his wife, who had remained jobless five years after graduating from Ambrose Alli University (AAU), Ekpoma, Edo State, to patronise the private hospital.
Echenim lamented the continued detention of his wife and the triplets at the hospital because of their inability to pay the bill charged by the hospital management for the delivery of their babies.
The distraught father who said the triplets were their first set of children since they got married over five years ago, said the medical bill was too high for his family to pay.
He appealed to the government and good spirited individuals to come to their aid.
“For about seven weeks since the kids were delivered we have been at this hospital. I registered my wife for ante-natal at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Asaba, but because of the strike by doctors, I brought her here for the delivery.
“The kids were delivered through caesarean section and were taken to the incubator where they spent over one month before their discharge. Now the bill has come up to N723,100 and still running because we are still here.
“So I am appealing to the government and the general public for help so that I would be able to bring up the babies in the way of God. We have spent over N60,000 on the nurse who was taking care of the babies at night.
“I have started buying food for them and they take a full can in three days. We buy pampers for N1,500 which last for just three days. This is besides the drugs we have been buying. It is just too much for us, we need help from the public,” Echenim appealed.