SAN FRANCISCO, February 01, (THEWILL) – A Nigerian woman, Priscilla, has incurred a bill of £500,000 after giving birth to quadruplets at Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital in London.
The 43-year-old woman had intended to give birth to the babies in Chicago, U.S where she has family but was turned away by border officials upon arrival saying she did not have the required documents from a hospital stating that she had the money to pay for the delivery.
Priscilla said she was returning to Nigeria through London when she started having contractions shortly after landing at Heathrow airport in November 2016, three months to her Expected Day of Delivery (EDD).
She had been advised 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’.
She was then taken to the Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital in West London, part of Imperial College Hospital, where she delivered the four babies.
Unfortunately, one of the babies died shortly after birth while another, a girl named Deborah, passed away on January 28, 2017.
The other two, Elijah and Esther, are still being treated on the hospital’s neonatal intensive care ward.
Hospital staff estimates that the total bill for the highly complex birth and the care of the babies is already more than £500,000 as the cost of treating one baby in neonatal intensive care is £20,000 a week.
Priscilla, who is a healthcare worker in Nigeria, is currently staying at a hostel run by a charity and is unable to afford the bill.
Worse, her husband is in Nigeria and cannot afford to come to Britain to help take care of her as he does not have enough money for a visa or the flight.
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