A resident of Osogbo, the capital of Osun State, Abibat Toyin Hammed, has reportedly been held hostage by officials of the Osun State University Teaching Hospital, Osogbo, due to her inability to pay her hospital bills.
Abibat, a deaf woman with an intellectual disability, delivered a baby at the hospital on Wednesday. Tragically, the baby died shortly after birth.
Abibat, an indigene of Osogbo, was rushed to UNIOSUN Teaching Hospital by some leaders of the Nigerian National Association of the Deaf, Osun State chapter when she was in labor. Members of the association had contributed money for her hospital admission card, drugs, and other necessities upon her admission.
However, the hospital has asked them to bring a total sum of N51,100 before Abibat would be allowed to leave the health facility.
In an interview with The Point on Friday, the chairperson of the deaf association in the state, Omolara Oyebode, called on the state government, civil society groups, and other well-meaning Nigerians to come to the aid of Abibat, saying she is an indigent person with disabilities who has been abandoned by her family.
Oyebode revealed that the longer Abibat stays in the hospital, the higher the bills she would accrue, adding that the association had already spent all it has in caring for her.
“I am begging and appealing to you all to please contribute money so as to enable us to pay the remaining hospital bill of Abibat Toyin Hammed before they will discharge her from the hospital. If we don’t pay them on time, they will increase the money,” she pleaded.
