How Girl died after being detained over unpaid medical bill

A sickle cell patient identified as Onyinye Ezeanyika earlier this morning died in a mission hospital in Onitsha, after being detained by the hospital management over unpaid accumulated bills.

DAILY POST gathered that Onyinye had been detained for one year and six months by the hospital, after she and her family were unable to pay a bill of N1.2million given her by the hospital.

The coordinator of the people Living With Sickle Cell Disorder, PLWSCD, Mrs Aisha Edward who disclosed this to our correspondent in a telephone interview said Onyinye died at the hospital where she was held hostage by the management.

She disclosed that Onyinye had sneaked out of the hospital about a month ago to her house to show her the bill made by the management of the hospital.

“I had given her money then, and even advised her to escape from the hospital. But when the hospital found out she had visited me, they threatened her and instilled fear in her, and since then, my daughter has not been herself.

“She even told me that the hospital intended to keep her until Christmas, when philanthropists usually came to redeem the bills of indigent patients, so you can see the motive behind her being detained by the hospital.”

Edward said she was more pained by the fact that the hospital involved was a missionary hospital.

She lamented that sickle cell patients were now being used by hospitals to make money by charging them exorbitantly, in the hope that philanthropists and other organisations will come to redeem the bills.

Speaking on the demised sickle cell patient, Edward said, “I called her yesterday so she can join us at Onitsha where an NGO donated food items and various gifts to us, including entertainment, but she told me she was in pain and can not come.

“I even brought some foodstuff back, which I hoped to share among those members who could not make it to Onitsha, but to my shock this morning, I received a call that she had died.

“Now that she is dead, I urge the hospital to sell her corpse and offset the bill she left behind,” Edward said in tears.