36 indigent patients 'detained' by Federal Medical Centre, Umuahia over N4m bills as hapless kids drink own urine in the hospital when thirsty

Four hapless kids aged between two and five have been abandoned by their parents at the Okpara Ward of the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Umuaiha over reasons left to conjecture.
The abandoned children who are said to be living at the mercy of nurses and public-spirited patients as well as visitors to the hospital have, however, taken to strange way of life: they drink their own urine when thirsty in place of water.
A source and father to a patient at the hospital who pleaded anonymity told The Authority on Saturday that nurses on duty, sometimes, watch the abandoned kids drink their urine without correction.
"It appears it is no longer strange to them as the nurses merely dismissed me while raising the alarm to the strange behaviour. She says it is their way of life," the source recounted his experience to this reporter.
Already, one of them, a female, has recently bid the world bye while the lives of the remaining three are waiting to snap except a great help comes their way.
The strange discovery made this reporter abandon what he came to the hospital to do for a more thorough probe into how the children got to the hospital, why their parents were unavailable to attend to their needs and what the hospital is doing to give succour to them.
The probe, though, yielded much information, yet answers to certain questions were left only to conjecture.
The Authority on Saturday, for instance, discovered that one of the children, was indeed, born in the hospital, two were picked up in the bush while the fourth was brought into the hospital by his guardian under the pretence of seeking medical care only to bolt away, leaving him for the hospital authorities.
The only baby girl among them who was picked in the bush was named Adamma Okpara but has already slept in the Lord.
The whereabouts of the mothers of the remaining three kids can no longer be traced, according to a hospital source, as they were said to have quickly disappeared after they were either delivered of the babies or brought into the hospital for medical attention.
It was learnt that the surviving kids are suffering from cerebral palsy which perhaps made their mothers to bolt away.
Cerebral palsy is a medical condition relating to the inability of the brain to function optimally. It is like an injury in the brain and affects body co-ordination in the sufferer.
When The Authority on Saturday, however, visited the Okpara Ward of the hospital where the kids are currently kept, one of them was observed making strange noise while the remaining two lay almost motionless in their cage-like bed.
The presence of the kids, two of who still wore diapers, despite their seeming old age was enough nuisance to other room mates at the ward due to the strange noise emanating particularly from one of them who was stark naked.
All the three kids, it was gathered, are males as the fourth which was a female was said to have died recently.
One man whose child was also admitted in the ward said he was appalled when he ob¬served the pitiable conditions of the kids.
The man who pleaded not to be mentioned said he saw one of them squeezing urine from his diapers and drinking same.
"When I saw it, I screamed and asked one of the nurses why but she asked me not to disturb her because that has been the way of the kids," the source said.
Continuing, the source said, "When I bought gala and gave to him, he threw it back at me. I was told he had never tasted gala in his life. What I saw was baffling. I never believed a hu¬man being can behave like that at that age".
But in an interview with our correspondent, a Medical So¬cial Worker in the hospital, Mrs Ifegwu Chukwuka who spoke on behalf of the Director, Med¬ical Welfare Office, Dr Orieji Uka who was said to be away on official duty, said the aban¬doned kids had cerebral palsy and were medically abnormal.
She said their mothers gave fake information about their contacts when they were admit¬ted for child birth, and smart¬ly disappeared afterwards and could no longer be traced.
One of them, she said, was tactfully abandoned by the grandmother who alleged¬ly brought him to the hospital and feigned she was going to pick some things in town but never showed up again.
Continuing, she said, "Police brought one of them – Testimo¬ny Nwankwo – who they said was picked in the night from a bush called Nwankwo, and that is why he was named Testimo¬ny Nwankwo. The mother had dumped him in the bush and she cannot be traced.
"Another one, a girl who just died was named Adamma Okpara after the name of the ward. She was also picked and brought here and since then, nobody came to claim her," she stated.
She said the abandoned kids who had medical abnormalities were a big liability to the hos¬pital, and that sustaining them is eating deep into the purse of the hospital.
According to her, efforts by the hospital management to give them away to mother¬less babies' homes for adoption were fruitless as such homes re¬jected them on the grounds that they were mentally deranged.
On why they would be so neglected that they drink their urine in place of water, Mrs Chukwuka said, "you know how an abnormal person be-haves. It is not as if we no long¬er care for them but sometimes they might decide to be funny because of their abnormality. Sometimes, they even mash their excreta. We have been spending heavily to keep them alive."
She, therefore, appealed to government and public-spirited individuals to assist the hospi¬tal management in taking care of the abandoned kids.
Also in the hospital, The Authority on Saturday, in the course of investigating the abandoned babies' stories, dis¬covered some discharged but detained patients over inabili¬ty to pick their bills.
No fewer than 36 indigent patients are currently held back in the hospital pending the payment of their hospital ills amounting to N4,026,075 ac¬cording to the hospital's record sighted by our correspondent.
An attempt to describe the affected patients as "detained patients" was sharply resisted by one of the hospital's manage¬ment staff who said "this is not a police station where suspects are detained. What we simply do is to hold them back pend¬ing when they pay their bills."
From the available records, it was observed that some of them had made some deposits but could not finish the pay¬ment while some could not af¬ford any deposits at all.
It was alleged that once a pa¬tient was discharged, he ceased receiving any form of attention from the hospital until he final¬ly leaves.
This was confirmed by one of the patients who said that "since I was discharged, I have been on my own; nobody gives me drug or food, and that is why I am pleading that some¬body whom God has blessed should come to my aid to set¬tle my bills so that I can leave this place."
But the hospital manage¬ment denied this allegation, saying that "even though we have discharged them, we still attend to them. We only dis-charged them so that their bills will stop mounting but doctors on ward-round checks still give them drugs out of human sym¬pathy."
Investigations from the hos¬pital's records showed that two of the patients were discharged since 2013, and 2014 respec¬tively, while others were dis¬charged this year.
According to the records also, one of the patients, Ori¬aku Chidi who was admitted on November 6, 2015 and dis¬charged on November 11, is be¬ing held back because of paltry N5,210 as he had made a deposit of N35,000 out of his to¬tal bill of N40,210.
One of the patients, Collins Nwaro told The Authority on Saturday that he had nobody to defray his balance of N457,520 after he had paid a deposit of N60,000.
The 32-year-old French and Fine Arts teacher at Marist Hol¬ly Cross Secondary School, Ut¬uru, said he was knocked down by a lorry on July 8, 2015 at Hopeville Uturu while he was crossing the road.
His right leg was later am¬putated as a result of severe in¬juries he sustained.
He said the driver of the lor¬ry who was later detained by the Police said he had no money and could not afford anything for his treatments.
Nwaro who looked high¬ly traumatised apparently be¬cause of shock said efforts to get financial assistance from the Marist school where he is a staff proved abortive as the Rev. Brother in charge only gave him N3,000.
His words: "When Father came to see me here in the hos¬pital, he brought me some tis¬sues and N3,000. I pleaded with him to help me pay my bill but he told me that there was no money because he had some projects he was handling."
Nwaro who said he might no longer be able to stand for a long time to teach, particularly appealed to Abia State Gover¬nor, Dr Okezie Ikpeazu, to help write off his bill and rehabilitate him for a new life.
"I may not be able to contin¬ue as a teacher because teaching involves standing, and I cannot stand for long anymore," he ag¬onised, clutching his crutches.
He gave his phone number as 08168810755 for possible as¬sistance.
Similarly, another indi¬gent patient, Mr Johnson On¬wubuiko, appealed for urgent financial help from govern¬ment and men of goodwill to help him defray his N181,945 outstanding bill, having made a deposit of N100,000 out of the N281,945 bill.
The 58-year-old farmer and palm wine tapper from Ikwua¬no said he fell from a palm tree on June 22, 2015 where he had gone to tap 'ngwo'.
Although he had been dis¬charged since August 18, the fa¬ther of five said he was still par¬alysed from his chest to toes and could not stand or sit.
The wife who said they had nobody to assist them said the husband urgently needed a wheelchair for movements.
She, therefore, appealed to the wife of the governor as well as men of goodwill to come to their aid.
Similarly, a 22-year-old or¬phan (name withheld) from Ihite Uboma in Imo State who was delivered of a baby out¬side wedlock could not pay her N35,340 hospital bill and was held back.
Her case was worsened be¬cause of her HIV/ AIDS pos¬itive status as she looked very frail due to malnutrition.
She told The Authority on Saturday that she was put in a family way by a certain young man who had promised to mar¬ry her while living with her fa¬ther's sister in Enugu.
She said the lover whose name she did not know fled when he realised that she was pregnant, thus, abandoning her to her fate.
According to her, the father's sister whom she had lived with for six months before the ugly incident brought her back to the village and abandoned her also.
She was admitted at the hos¬pital on November 13, 2015 and discharged on November 16 af¬ter she was delivered of her baby boy.
A hospital source told our correspondent that the young mother was told not to breast-feed the baby to avoid transmit¬ting the dreaded HIV/ AIDS to him but she could not keep the instruction because she had no money to place him on baby supplements.
The source further said that the patient's health could de¬teriorate in the days ahead be¬cause "she has no money to buy antiretroviral drugs.
The source said nurses in the hospital had been contributing to feed her, adding that even the N1,000 needed for the ba¬by's circumcision was donated by a kind-hearted fellow.
Later in an interview with our correspondent, the Head of Administration in the hospital, Mr Rowland Ekpem, said the hospital was spending a great deal in maintaining the dis¬charged indigent patients.
Identifying paucity of funds as the greatest challenge of the hospital, Mr Ekpem appealed to government especially the host Abia State to come to its rescue.
His words: "Lack of funds is our major challenge. Our in¬ternal roads here are dilapidat¬ed. We also need money to up¬grade our equipment and get more personnel.
"Over 90 per cent of our pa¬tients are Abians. We need the assistance of the state govern¬ment even though this is a fed¬eral hospital. If we have the right personnel and equipment, Abi¬ans will enjoy better healthcare services."
He however hinted that ef¬forts were being intensified to convert the hospital into a Teaching Hospital once the proposed Medicine and Sur¬gery College of the Michael Ok¬para University of Agriculture Umudike (MOUAU) comes on stream.
Mr Ekpem, therefore, ap¬pealed for collaborative action by all the necessary stakeholders to actualise the project which he said would greatly boost health¬care services both in the state and the entire South East geo¬political zone.