2nd September, 2014
Jethro Ibileke/Benin
A Delta state-based fashion designer, Godswill Echenim, has appealed to the Delta state government and the general public to help prevail on the management of Group Christian Medical Centre, Asaba, to release his wife and triplet reportedly detained by the hospital over N723.100.00 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 triplet in July, said that their predicament was a fallout of the nationwide strike declared by the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), for doctors in government hospitals which made his wife who had remained jobless five years after graduating from Ambrose Alli University (AAU) Ekpoma, Edo state, to patronise the private hospital.
He lamented the continued detention of his wife and the triplet at the hospital because of their inability to pay the bill charged by the hospital management for the delivery of their children.
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 much for his family to bear. 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 triplet were delivered through caesarean section and were placed in an incubator where they spent over one month before their discharge. Now the bill has come up to N723,100.00 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 for 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 N1500.00 which lasts 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.