Hospital chains woman to urinal pipe for 1 month over unpaid bills

isaac

September 21, 2015 12:36 PM

A private hospital in Lagos has reportedly chained a female patient for over one month because she could not pay her bills.

Jessica Ugwoke was subjected to inhuman treatment by a hospital

A private medical facility in Lagos State, Samaria Hospital, located at Kudaki Road, Hostel bus stop in Ikotun Egbe area of the state, is in the eye of the storm for the wrong reasons after the management ordered that a woman who underwent a Caesarean Section (CS), Jessica Ugwoke, over a month ago, be detained over the woman’s failure to pay her bills.

A to make the case worse, the woman was chained to a urinal pipe all the while to prevent her from escaping.

According to reports, Ugwoke who was pregnant at the time, was admitted to the private hospital on August 12, 2015, and her husband, Tockuwkwu, asked to pay the sum of N30,000 for blood transfusion into his wife, because she had lost a lot of blood during labor.

But after the operation, the couple's baby died and after the loss of the child, the woman was detained by the hospital for the failure of her relatives to to pay the hospital’s bills which amounted to N285,000.

But the woman, narrating her plight, said she and her husband were not informed of the cost of the Caesarean section until after the surgery.

According to her, one Dr. Clem ordered that she be denied a hospital bed and refused her further treatment after her surgery because she and her husband could not pay the bill.

“The day they discharged me from the bed, Dr. Clem asked me to tell my husband to bring his money even if he has to steal.

I have been lying down on the passageway,” Ugwuoke lamented.

The woman's husband who is currently unemployed, also said he had pleaded with the hospital to release his wife while he runs around to raise the money, to no avail.

He said his wife had been chained for over a month forestall her escape, described her treatment as dehumanizing.

isaac