The management of Babcock University Teaching Hospital (BUTH) Ilishan-Remo, Ogun State has raised the alarm over an alleged abandonment of an 81- year-old patient, Pa Maurice Okpenyong, by his children in its facilities.
The hospital raised the alarm in a press statement made available to newsmen on Saturday by the director of Communication and Marketing of the university, Dr Joshua Suleiman.
According to Suleiman, Pa Okpenyong was brought to the hospital by his children (a man and woman), who have now disappeared and refused to come to take their father home after the hospital had signed his discharge on December 20, 2023.
He explained that Pa Okpenyong, a native of Obot Akara Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State was admitted by the hospital over Repeat Suprapublic Cystostomy diagnosis (a health condition that requires passing of urine through the tube).
He said the octogenarian was brought in on the 10th of December, 2023 and was on admission for just 10 days after which he was due for discharge but that none of his family members showed up let alone taken him home since then.
According to him, the whereabouts of the patient’s family members, especially his son, Lawrence, who brought him and his daughter are unknown to the hospital management.
He declared that the hospital had made a series of efforts to locate Lawrence’s whereabouts but all to no avail.
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According to him, the hospital has reported the matter to the police at both Area ‘F’ police command in Ilishan- Remo, which covers the hospital area and the Bariga Police Division in Lagos under the jurisdiction of the office and home addresses Mr Lawrence gave to the hospital on the day his father was admitted.
He added that hospital management had teamed up with the police in both Area ‘F’ Command and Bariga Division to look for Mr Lawrence at those addresses with no success and that his phone number is also not going again.
“They told those who visited the two addresses that Mr Lawrance is no longer staying there,” Suleiman noted.
Meanwhile, the hospital’s management said the patient’s unpaid total bill as at December 20, 2023, when Pa Okpenyong was due for discharge was N399, 320.
But the bill has now risen to N1, 279, 350 as of March 20, 2024.
The hospital pointed out that only N180, 000 in two installments was paid so far by the children of the patient before.
The hospital’s management said its decision to now make the matter public was to ensure that the patient’s family comes to take him home as the hospital could no longer guarantee his welfare.
The octogenarian was also said to have now become unruly and abusive as “he sometimes removes his urine bag and “wee wee” on the floor even as the hospital continues to cater for his upkeep and wellbeing.
While the hospital now placed the octogenarian patient on watch because he may attempt to absond, it also urges his children to show up and take their father home.
