In a heartbreaking indictment of the healthcare system, a joy that should be celebrated has turned into a prison sentence. Blessing Odenigbo, a fruit seller in Enugu, is currently detained at the Divine Assurance Hospital, unable to take her newborn triplets home due to a crippling N3.85 million medical bill.

The triplets—two boys and a girl—were delivered prematurely on January 11, nearly seven weeks before their due date. While the medical team successfully saved their lives after Blessing developed life-threatening pre-eclampsia, the financial cost of their survival has become a cage. The hospital has reportedly refused to discharge the infants until the bill is cleared, a sum that grows by N300,000 every single day they remain.

A Desperate Plea

"I am a fruit seller," Blessing cried out from her hospital bed, her voice trembling with exhaustion. "We traveled from Nsukka seeking help, not to be trapped." The daily charge of N95,250 per child for incubator care is an astronomical figure for a family already struggling to make ends meet. They have managed to scrape together enough to cover the mother's treatment, but the babies remain hostages to the ledger.

The situation at the facility, located near the Police Detective College, highlights a brutal reality: in Nigeria, access to life-saving technology is often a privilege, not a right. The "pay-or-stay" policy effectively turns hospitals into debtors' prisons.

• The Medical Crisis: Blessing's blood pressure spiked to 196/100, necessitating an emergency C-section to save the four lives.
• The Call to Action: The family has publicly appealed to Enugu State Governor Peter Mbah and philanthropists to intervene before the bill becomes insurmountable.

The Human Cost of Survival

This case is not unique, but the scale of the debt for three infants makes it particularly tragic. The joy of a triple birth has been suffocated by the anxiety of debt. As Blessing watches her children in the incubator, she is not planning their naming ceremony; she is calculating the price of their freedom.

The public is urged to look not away. These children have fought to breathe; they should not have to fight to go home.