Delta Hospital Detains Lady, Child For Five Months Over Unpaid Surgery Bills

By Godwin-Maria Utuedoye

An 18 year old girl, Toyin Oluwagbemiga, a resident of Ekuigbo, in Ughelli North Local Government Area, Delta State, who was delivered of a baby girl in a hospital in Ughelli through surgery but unable to pay her bills, has appealed to the Delta state Governor, Sheriff Oborevwori and other spirited individuals to come to her aid and help her pay her hospital bill to enable her regained freedom from were she is being detained at the hospital in the past five months.

However, having been taken for granted severally, he had to be hard on this patient by detaining her after performing a surgery, (Caesarean section, CS) on her during child delivery.

Miss Toyin Oluwagbemiga, was put in the family way by one Joshua Cole immediately after her SSCE at Ekuigbo Grammar School, but when the pregnancy was due, she had some complications which took her to the Ekuigbo Community Health Centre in Ughelli.

With her condition perceived critical, she was referred to the Ughelli Central Hospital, but her parents rather rushed her to Trinity Hospital, a private health facility in Ughelli.

The hospital, which is located in the Akporigbe Area of Ughelli town, received Toyin Oluwagbemiga on June 5, 2023, into her facility and treated her, but unfortunately, her parents absconded after the  Caesarean section (CS).

When journalists visited the Hospital on Monday, October 23, to confirm the incident which was brought to their notice by a good Samaritan, (name withheld) one  Dr. Bryian narrated all that transpired and, contrary to what is been peddled by the girls mother referring to the Doctor and hospital as conscienceless, Dr. Bryian said, it is not as if he is heartless or being wicked, but as a result if past experiences.

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 said he was at the Theatre when she was brought in, but have 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 refered, and even wrote  another referral letter for them, but said all tye people that brought her started crying and begging that he should attend to her.

In his words, “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 has convulsed twice and already  having eclemsia, (a gynaecology term related to high blood pressure).

” I invited the mother and told her that with her condition, the placenta will 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 will charge if she was to be handled at the hospital.

“But her relatives, I mean those that brought her, some where arguing, let’s take her to 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, prevailed on me to help them. That was how i called the father or the uncle and told him how much we are charging, and he accepted to pay”.

He noted that base 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.

Dr. Bryian who probably must have experienced such cases in the past, where people had took advantages of his simplicity, noted that it was so disappointing and surprising to him.

“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 already well.

“She went into coma and even the baby too was flat, but we have to use oxygen and others to revived both mother and baby because their respiration was gone”

The soft spoken Dr. Bryan said he has been so simple with his patients and does not bothered whether one deposited anything before the commencement of treatment, but said, many have taken advantages 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 said by 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, equipments, oxygen, drugs, diesel and pay for everything we use in treating patients, so why should they be treating us this way, he asked.”

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.

Not happy with the attitude of the girls mother who goes about  propagating that the hospital is wicked and trying to use propaganda on him, he decided to keep Toyin until the balance bill of  the hospital, which is N537, 800 is cleared.

Meanwhile, the man who put Toyin in a family way, on seeing her condition, allegedly denied the ownership of the pregnancy, and his family members too has also abandoned the Toyin.

The detained patient Toyin Oluwagbemiga who looks so frail, weak and carrying her five months old baby at the hospital lobby at the top floor, told Southernvoicenews.com that she is so grateful to the Doctor, and that there  is no way she could have blame the Doctor. She said the Doctor  has really tried in bringing 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 described both the doctor and the staff at the hospital as people with good  heart and compassionate.

“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 the money, that is why they abandoned me here .”

She said her mum is a petty groundnut hawker who lives Ughelli for Warri daily to hawk groundnuts and the meagre proceeds from her business was not even enough to feed the home, why her father have no job and has since left Ughelli, but didn’t disclosed his where about presently.

Miss. Toyin Oluwagbemiga, is 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 maintained that it was not intentional as her mother and father has no money.

Asked about the man who impregnated her and 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 paternity, but consistently insisted that she never dated any other man except him.

“When I was pregnant, all through the period, he use to come to our house, and we all related very well with both my parents and sometimes he gives me money, until the day I started convulsing when before I went into coma, everything just changed”.

She said Joshua was earlier arrested by her family when she was in coma, but said she didn’t know how the matter was resolved as she was in coma all through the period, and could not tell if that was why he is denying the paternity of the child.

Her experiences so far:

Toyin lamented that she has seen real suffering in the past four but going to five months now, as she does not eat most of the days. She disclosed that she lives on peoples good will and charity given by patients and people coming to the hospital and sympathized with her after hearing her story.

“Both the child diapers, baby food have been on good will from patients here  or from  people  who came here on visit to their people who are either on admission or out door patients. Most time I wake and sleep in hunger”.

According to her, the Doctor have stopped attending to her and her baby, and no further treatment on them since her people could not pay the hospital bill.

Miss Toyin Oluwagbemiga however appealed to the Delta State Government, other spirited individuals, churches and well meaning Nigerians to come to her aid and help her out regained her freedom.

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.

SouthernVoicenews.com has also joined voices with her and others to call on the state governor, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori, other spirited individuals to as a matter of urgency visits the hospital and facilitate her discharged so that young Miss Toyin who sound so intelligent with excellent diction can reunite with her family alongside the innocent baby girl and chart a new cause in her life.