Dubai: Anonymous donor pays premature baby’s hospital bill

Dubai: A Filipina mum facing a possible court order if medical bills for her premature daughter weren’t paid by last Thursday, has been bailed out by an anonymous donor thanks to a Gulf News appeal.

A well-known local company wishing to remain anonymous paid Louie May Taboclaon’s Dh60,000 private hospital bill, after her daughter Ahliya Faith was born 28 weeks premature on August 5, weighing just 700-grams.

A bill of Dh60,000 due

Insurance covered the first month of their daughter’s stay on a specialist baby care unit in the private hospital at a cost of Dh180,000, but once their coverage was through, they were left with a bill of Dh60,000.

In order to move her daughter to a cheaper government hospital at a cost of Dh4,000 a day rather than Dh7,000 a day, Louie had to sign a cheque for Dh60,000 dated September 26, to clear the bill and transfer her daughter.

The manicurist knew she wouldn’t be able to clear the cheque because she earns just Dh5,000 a month and her husband Reynan del Rosario works for an events management firm that hasn’t had any events to cover for six months.

“We were so grateful to these people for helping us,” said Louie. “They paid everything and this helps us so much. At first we thought we were going to be in trouble for not being able to pay but this has answered our prayers, so I thank them so much,” she added.

Baby Ahliya remains in hospital however and won’t be discharged until she weighs 1.8-kg. At the moment she is 1.1-kg, but at is breathing without the need for a ventilator.

Doctors estimate that she may need to stay in for another month, which at around Dh4,000 a day has already racked up a bill of Dh51,000, which could total into the hundreds of thousands by the time she is released. This is another bill her parents don’t know how they will be able to pay, but at least for the meantime there will be no cases filed against them to add to the stress of their ordeal.