The management of Babcock University Teaching Hospital (BUTH) is seeking to locate the relatives of one of its patients, Mr. Maurice Okpenyong, who has been abandoned at its medical facilities..
Mr. Okpenyong was brought to the hospital by his children (a man and woman), who have now disappeared and refused to come to take him home after BUTH signed his discharge in December, 2023.
The whereabouts of the patient’s son (Lawrence) and daughter are unknown to the management of BUTH.
The management of the hospital said it had teamed up with the Police in Ilishan, Area F, and Bariga to look for his son at both his official residence and private address without success.
Meanwhile, the hospital’s management said the patient’s unpaid total bill was Three hundred and Ninety Nine Thousand, Three Hundred and Twenty Naira (N399, 320) as at the time that his discharge was first signed on December 20, 2023. But the refusal of his children to come forward to pick him home, and his continued stay and upkeep in the hospital has increased the patient’s total bill to One million, Two Hundred and Seventy Nine Thousand, Three Hundred and Fifty Naira (N1, 279, 350) as at March 20, 2024.
As at the time of this report the sum of One Hundred and Eighty Naira (180, 000) only had been paid by the patient or children.
The hospital’s management said its decision to make it public was to ensure that the patient’s family comes to take him home as the hospital could no longer guarantee his welfare.
In addition, the management said the patient had not only become unruly but also abusive, even as the hospital continues to cater for his upkeep and wellbeing.
“Sometimes he removes his urine bag and urinates on the floor and the whole place smells. This is why we have placed him on watch because we are afraid that he may abscond,” the hospital management said.
Mr. Okpenyong is a native of Obot Akara Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom and he came in with Repeat Suprapublic Cystostomy diagnosis.
