A medical doctor and owner of Martins Hospital in Sagamu, Ogun State, Dr Babatunde Onamusi-Martins, has been accused of detaining a woman that was just delivered of babies, identified only as Aina, in his facility for three months over hospital bills.
PUNCH Metro learnt that 24-year-old Aina had been pregnant with twins and was due for delivery on April 7, when her husband, Ola, a factory worker, rushed her to a church.
She was said to have developed complication after being delivered of the first baby boy, who died shortly after birth.
She was taken to Martins Hospital in GRA, Sabo, Sagamu, where the second baby boy was delivered.
The child died as well.
The proprietor of the hospital was alleged to have insisted on the payment of over N300,000 before releasing the victim.
Aina’s husband, Ola, told our correspondent that he could not explain how the medical bills accumulated to N300,000.
He said, “I am engaged to my woman, though we are not yet fully married. When she was due for delivery, we decided to take her to a church beside our house, where pregnant women in our area are usually delivered of babies.
“The first baby came out, but died some minutes after. There was a complication when the second child was about to be delivered and I called my wife’s mother, who advised that we take her to a hospital.
“The doctor asked for a deposit of N150,000, which we could not raise. He later summed up our bills and said we were owing him over N300,000.
“We first raised an initial sum of N130,000 and later added N70,000 to make the money N200,000. When we invited a radio presenter to the hospital and the issue started gaining attention on the social media, he decided to give us a N65,000 discount.
“I cannot explain how we accumulated up to N300,000 because apart from the money we paid, we also gave him N12,000 on three occasions for the three pints of blood he bought for us. We bought plasters, methylated spirits, and some other things that were unavailable at the hospital.”
Ola said the poor condition of his family forced his wife to use a church for delivery, adding that Martins Hospital was no better.
He described the hospital environment as unsanitary, saying he wanted to take his wife from there a day after she was delivered of the twin.
However, the owner of the hospital described the allegations as false, saying he saved Aina from death after she was rushed to his hospital.
Onamusi-Martins said he never detained the patient, adding that she was always moving freely.
He said, “The girl was pregnant with twins and was taken to a church where they forced the first child out and killed him. I was asleep when my nurses came to wake me up late at night that we had an emergency.
“I accepted her, despite the fact that she was not registered with my hospital. She was smelly and had a rope tied around her private parts. They begged me to assist the family. When the begging was much, I decided to run a scan on her and I saw that the second baby was still breathing.
“I asked them to deposit N200,000, but they said they didn’t have the money and they would come with it the next day. I decided to help because of the innocent baby. We resuscitated the woman and brought out the child, which later died.
“By 4am of the following day, she had become stable and when I asked for their deposit, they started rambling that they didn’t have the money.”
The doctor explained that Aina’s condition later worsened, which led to a surgical operation.
He said after successfully managing the situation, it was discovered that she was in dire need of blood.
“I had to go to the Olabisi Onabanjo University Teaching Hospital to look for blood for her. I did that because I didn’t want to infect anybody with HIV by error. It was a Sunday and it was a personal sacrifice. What did I do wrong? After that, I saw that she was oozing pus from her private parts. We used powerful drugs to save her life. The hospital environment stank and we had to sanitise the place.
“At the end of the day, we took her back to the theatre to close her up when there were no more dirt in her. She could have also had Vesicovaginal Fistula (VVF), but we stopped that from happening. They had spent over two months at the hospital and we asked them to deposit N200,000, but they refused. They paid N130,000. When we did the whole bill, the husband brought another N70,0000, making it N200,000, out of a bill of over N360,000”
He said the family still owed his hospital N103,000 after he gave them a discount of N65,000.
The doctor said he regretted helping the family, saying he was being harassed by some unknown persons who got his telephone number on the social media.
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