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Nigerian woman has racked up 500,000 Pounds NHS bill after giving birth
to IVF quadruplets in London hospital after going into labour on flight
to Heathrow, hours after she was turned away from the US.
The Nigerian who delivered four
A 43-year-old Nigerian woman identified only as Priscilla, who gave
birth to quadruplets in one of the largest hospitals in the United
Kingdom, shortly after landing at Heathrow airport in November, is
currently chasing a bill of more than £500,000 (Approx. N90million).
According to Dailymail,
Priscilla who is a healthcare worker, had intended to give birth to the
babies in Chicago, in the United States, where she has family, but was
turned away by border officials upon arrival.
They claimed that although she had a visa, she did not have
required documents from a hospital stating that she had the money to pay
for the birth.
Speaking to a correspondent, Priscilla said she was returning to
Nigeria via London when she started having contractions. She was taken
to the Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital in west London, part of
Imperial College Hospital, where she delivered the four babies.
One sadly died shortly after birth while another, a girl named
Deborah, passed away on Saturday. The other two, Elijah and Esther, are
still being treated on the hospital’s neonatal intensive care ward.
Staff estimate that the total bill for the highly complex birth and
the care of the babies is already more than £500,000 about N90 million.
The cost of treating one baby in neonatal intensive care is £20,000
a week. Priscilla is currently staying at a hostel run by a charity and
is unable to afford the bill. Her husband is in Nigeria, and cannot
come to Britain to help take care of her as he does not have enough
money for a visa or the flight.
Priscilla underwent IVF treatment, which has a high risk of
multiple births, as she was struggling to conceive naturally due to her
age. She was told by her doctor to fly to the US to have her babies, as
Nigerian hospitals do not have the ‘facilities to cater for the
children’.
Her case is revealed tonight in the BBC 2 documentary Hospital, which exposes the pressures of health tourism on the trust.
When first warned of the high treatment costs by overseas visitor manager, Terry Facey, she says:
‘I didn’t plan to come here. It’s only money. Money can’t buy
life. The last bill I had was £331,000 but – even if I worked every day –
I would never earn that much money. My kids are priceless.’
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