month-old infants in a Makkah hospital have been prevented from taking their children home since their birth for failing to pay medical fees. The private hospital has told them they cannot see their offspring until the SR50,000 bill is paid in full, and father Abdul Malik said he and his wife dare not go to the hospital to see the babies in case they themselves are detained. “My wife gave birth to twin boys when she was seven months pregnant, and they were put in incubators for two months. But then the hospital demanded payment SR90,000 for delivery costs,” Abdul Malik said. When he said that he could not afford the bill, the hospital reduced the amount to SR50,000. The hospital, however, told Okaz that not only had it reduced the bill by 50 percent but had tried to contact the father to ask him to bring a sponsor to vouch for payment of the bill and take the infants home. “The hospital is providing the babies with full medical care, whether feeding, vaccinations, incubation or cleaning,” a manager from the hospital told Okaz. “We have also called the security authorities and written to social homes, all of whom have refused to take in the infants unless there is approval from the Emir's office in Makkah.” “We are handling the issue with as much compassion as possible, but ultimately we are a private medical establishment with employees and doctors working under our management,” the hospital official said. A similar case reported Monday involving a private hospital in Jeddah that refused to return the body of a Yemeni girl who died of swine flu to her family until they pay SR600,000 in treatment fees. The National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) has said that the hospital's refusal to return the girl's body is illegal.
