The management of Babcock
University Teaching Hospital (BUTH), Ilishan Remo, Ogun State, is seeking to
locate the relatives of one of its patients, Mr. Maurice Okpenyong, who has
gone unruly and “urinates on the floor and the whole place smells” after being
abandoned at its medical facilities.
Okpenyong was, according to the
management, brought to the hospital by his children (a man and a 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 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 N399,320 at the time that
his discharge was first signed on December 20, 2023. But the refusal of his
children to come forward to take him home, and his continued stay and upkeep in
the hospital have increased the patient’s total bill to N1,279,350 as of March
20, 2024.
As at the time of this report,
N180, 000 only had been paid by the patient or children.
The BUTH 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 well-being.
“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 said.
Okpenyong is a native of Obot
Akara Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom and he came in with Repeat Suprapublic
Cystostomy diagnosis.
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