Dubai: An Indian couple, who had their first pair of twins, prematurely lost one baby and have run up a bill of over Dh825,000, had to cough up postdated cheques for Dh460,000 to bring their surviving baby home.
“I have no idea where will I get this huge amount and fear I will not be able to honour these instalments,” says IT executive Mallikarjun Reddy, still grieving for his lost child.
Reddy’s wife, Shravani, delivered premature twins at 25 weeks of pregnancy at the Mediclinic Welcare Hospital on August 9. Of the babies christened Ahana and Ayana, weighing 720 grams and 670 grams respectively, only the former survived. Ayana gave up after a long struggle with an infection she was too weak to fight. She passed away on September 18 at less than six weeks old.
Last week the Reddys were able to bring their surviving daughter, Ahana, home weighing 1.95kg. However, their insurance covered only Dh365,000 of the total bill of Dh825,000 for the two babies. “One of our babies died due to contracting an infection at the hospital and yet the hospital is charging us for the treatment,” said the distraught father.
The parents of Ahana are appealing to the generosity of Dubai residents and requesting people to help them out in this crisis. “We cannot raise this amount by ourselves and sincerely appeal to the people of Dubai to support us in raising the remaining amount,” said Reddy.
Readers can directly contact the hospital at welcarehospital@mediclinic.ae and quote Baby Ahana’s patient ID 10474972.
