Help! Nursing mother detained in Lagos hospital over N95,000 debt

For owing N95,000 hospital bill, a nursing mother, Blessing Bassey and her baby have been sleeping on the floor of one of the wards of Mojol Hospital, Church Street, in the Shasha area of Lagos State, for seven months.

PUNCH Metro gathered that the hospital management ordered nurses and doctors to ensure that Blessing and her daughter did not leave the hospital premises.

Our correspondent, during a visit to the hospital, observed the 27-year-old and her child sleeping on the floor.

Blessing, who bemoaned her fate, said efforts by her husband to raise the money had been abortive.

The Cross River State indigene explained that her husband, a mechanic, tried to do menial jobs to raise the funds, but failed.

While recalling how she got to the hospital, Blessing said she was unconscious on March 6, 2020, when she was rushed to a medical facility where she was initially  registered.

She said, “I was seven months’ pregnant that time. I collapsed and was rushed to the hospital I registered with, but they did not have equipment for a caesarean section, so I was referred to Mojol Hospital. I was rushed to the hospital that same night and a CS was performed to save my life and the baby.

“Some days after the CS was done, I was told that our bill was N300,000; we paid N100,000 out of it.

“After paying, the owner of the hospital said the bill was N350,000. One of our neighbours came to beg her to reduce the money, and she reduced it to N250,000.

“We were able to pay a total of N155,000 and begged her to allow me to go and work so we could pay the balance by instalments, but she refused. I have been in the hospital since then.

“I had not spent one month on the hospital bed after the CS when I was told to move to the floor. I had to spread my wrapper on the floor so that my baby and I could sleep and that’s where we have been sleeping for the past seven months. Punch