Dubai: What seemed like a simple leg pain at first turned out to be much more than that for Shaista Mohideen, who was 25 weeks pregnant, after she ended up giving birth to premature twin babies.
Even while the family says they are yet to put behind them the physical stress and trauma of being rejected from hospitals amidst an emergency in the early hours of the morning, they are faced with yet another crisis. They are now grappling with medical bills of keeping their twins in the neonatal intensive care unit of a government hospital, the family said.
About two weeks at the hospital now, the family already owes close to Dh100,000 in medical bills. Since the babies are expected to be in the hospital for much longer, the bills are likely to go up to Dh600,000 to Dh800,000.
"At Dh7,000 per day we are totally clueless of what can be done, especially since our babies are expected to be hospitalised for three months or more," the distraught father Khawaja Mohideen, an Indian, said.
Dubai Hospital management told Gulf News that the babies are on ventilators. "Their condition is critical and they are on ventilator support because of their prematurity. Mortality rate is very high amongst such babies all over the world.
"If they survive without any complication, they are expected to be in the hospital for three to four months." The management also said that whenever the patients or relatives notify the hospital of financial constraints, they advise them to approach charity societies for help.
