Nigerian woman owes UK hospital £500,000, after birth of quadruplets

A Nigerian woman, Priscilla, has incurred a debt of more than £500,000 for giving birth to a set of quadruplets in one of the largest hospitals in the UK, says report.
Priscilla 43, was returning to Nigeria through London when she started having contractions shortly after landing at Heathrow Airport in November 2016, three months to her Expected Day of Delivery (EDD).
According to Daily Mail UK, she had intended to give birth to the babies in Chicago, in the US, where she has family but was turned away by border officials upon arrival.
They claimed that although she had a visa, she did not have required documents from a hospital stating that she had the money to pay for the birth.
Priscilla, a healthcare worker, said she was returning to Nigeria via London when she started having contractions.
She was taken to the Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea Hospital in West London, part of Imperial College Hospital, where she delivered the four babies.
One of the babies died shortly after birth while another, a girl named Deborah, passed away on Saturday.
The other two, Elijah and Esther, are still being treated on the hospital’s neonatal intensive care ward.
Staff estimates that the total bill for the highly complex birth and the care of the babies is already more than £500,000
The cost of treating one baby in neonatal intensive care is £20,000 a week.
Priscilla is currently staying at a hostel run by a charity and is unable to afford the bill.
Her husband is in Nigeria, and cannot come to Britain to help take care of her as he does not have enough money for a visa or the flight.
Priscilla underwent IVF treatment, which has a high risk of multiple births, as she was struggling to conceive naturally due to her age.
Her case is revealed tonight in the BBC 2 documentary Hospital, which exposes the pressures of health tourism on the trust.
When first warned of the high treatment costs by overseas visitor manager Terry Facey, she said: ‘I didn’t plan to come here.
“It’s only money. Money can’t buy life. The last bill I had was £331,000 but even if I worked every day, I would never earn that much money. My kids are priceless.”
Facey, who worked at the trust for 12 years trying to collect bills for overseas patients said: “those invoices are going to be huge … 20 grand a week for each baby in intensive care.”