Hospital Detains Corpse Of 12-Year Old Girl In Benin, Over Debt Of 400,000 Naira
The family of a 12-year-old student of New Era College in Benin, Edo State, Glory Ekeleyede, who died at the University of Benin Teaching Hospital due to an illness, has called for help to recover her corpse for burial.
The grieving father of the deceased identified as Samson, revealed that after his daughter died, the UBTH management held on to the corpse over the inability of the family to offset Glory’s outstanding medical bill to the tune of N400,000.
The 66-year-old man who said he had been doing menial jobs to feed his family, explained that attempts to save his daughter’s life made the family incur many debts.
“Our finances were completely wrecked due to Glory’s sickness. I do menial jobs outside to feed my children. My wife sells tomatoes and pepper in the market and that is how we have been managing.
“Glory hardly fell sick but the only time she took ill was the one that led to her death. We took her to some places for treatment because we thought she had a fever but when she wasn’t getting better after three days, we took her to the Supreme Hospital where she was born and they referred us to UBTH.
“At the UBTH, we did many tests and bought lots of drugs but she eventually died and we were told to pay an outstanding bill of N393,910 before we could take her corpse. They refused to let me have her body until I offset the bill,” he said.
Samson appealed to the Edo State government, non-governmental organizations, and public-spirited individuals to come to their aid in a bid to secure the release of his daughter’s corpse to fulfill her burial rites.
When the state Public Relations Officer of the hospital, Joshua Uwaila was contacted, he stated that he was not aware of the case, adding that the deceased’s father might not have gone through the right channel to seek assistance from the hospital.
He said, “We have a medical social services department where cases of indigent patients and social issues are handled and those are the ones that escalate it to management.
“Of course they also have to do their own investigations to actually ascertain if you are truly indigent. So, if you are going to waive bills or you are going to give some people a reduction, you need to do your investigations to find out if it’s somebody that deserves it.
“This has to do with the federal government’s revenue, and one cannot just by fiat tell them not to pay. The best that they can do is to write to the CMD who is the only person that can do something on the issue.”
Uwaila added that the management needs the payment for services rendered, to help sustain the hospital, as he further urged everyone to be careful about anything that has to do with government revenue.
“It’s a pathetic situation but someone has to pay the money, good Samaritans, charity, NGOs, someone should pick the bill,” Uwaila said.
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