Baby Chikamso
For Baby Chikamso, hope has finally come as she and her mother, Ruth, had been bailed from their unwanted tenancy in the hospital.
She was born on June 12, at Saint Mary’s Hospital Umunachi in Isiala Mbano LGA of Imo state. The mother, 23-year-old Ruth Ekechukwu, was delivered of the baby through Caesarean Section (CS).
After delivery, both mother and child were made to stay back in the hospital because nobody could pay the N135,000 hospital bill.
Ruth’s supposed husband and father of Chikamso had walked away from his family and shirking his responsibility by abandoning them in the hospital.
Further inquiry showed that the supposed father of the child walked away because his wife, Ruth, refused to accede to his demand that the baby be sold upon delivery.
Family sources said the hospital was generous enough to carry out the CS without insisting on deposit but three months after delivery, nobody showed up to pick the bill. Both mother and child were said to be surviving on handouts from hospital visitors and staff.
Their plight according to those familiar with the story, prompted some media advocacy by a few journalists whose reports caught the attention of some public-spirited individuals one of whom was the spokesperson of Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), Barr Ikenga Ugochinyere Imo, who not only offset the hospital bill but also made cash donations and other provisions to mother and child.
Other public-spirited Nigerians were also said to made donations to the abandoned mother and child. As at the time of filing this report, both mother and child have finally settled down with Ruth’s family for proper care.
Meantime, the police is said to be on manhunt for the run-away husband to compel him to sign an undertaking that nothing untoward be done to mother and child.
