Dubai: A Filipino family paying Dh4,000 daily for the neonatal care of a premature baby is asking for support for their daughter who was born 28 weeks premature, leaving them with mounting medical bills.
Ahliya Faith weighed just 700 grams when she was delivered through emergency Caesarian on August 5, months ahead of schedule.
Insurance initially covered her stay on a specialist neonatal ward at a private hospital in Mankhool for one month at a cost of Dh180,000.
That coverage expired last week, leaving her parents to foot a daily medical bill of Dh7,200.
Ahliya’s parents Louie Taboclaon, 32, and Reynan del Rosario, 32, originally from Cagayan de Oros in Mindanao, Philippines, have since transferred their child to a cheaper Dh4,000 a day option at a public hospital, but must pay within two weeks the first private hospital Dh60,000, discounted from Dh74,000.
Doctors are saying Ahliya will need to stay in hospital for around two months, and her parents who work in a salon and an event management company, don’t know how they will be able to afford the bill, which could eventually run into hundreds of thousands of dirhams.
“We needed to issue a cheque post dated to September 26 for Dh60,000 to the private hospital, but if we cannot afford to pay that I’m worried we will be sent to court,” said Ahliya’s mum Louie, who lives in Al Khail Gate in Al Quoz and earns Dh5,000 a month working as a manicurist.
Her husband Reynan works for an events management company, and could earn as much as Dh300 to Dh500 a day, but he hasn’t had any events to cover for over six months.
“I had planned to give birth to Ahliya back home in the Philippines as we did with my three-year-old son Zeus, who is now living back in the Philippines with his grandparents, but she was born so early and it was so unexpected,” she said, appealing for help from the community to settle the hospital bill.
