A MOTHER has gone to court to compel a private hospital in Cebu City to discharge her infant, despite half a million pesos in unpaid hospital bills since her delivery last July.

Maria Lourdes Farro filed a special proceeding for habeas corpus before the Regional Trial Court (RTC) against Cebu Doctors’ University Hospital. She said it refused to
discharge her baby until she settles P503,000 in hospital bills.

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Farro asked the court to issue a writ of habeas corpus, directing the hospital management to release her child without further delay.

Despite repeated attempts to reach them, no Cebu Doctors’ officials or counsel were available yesterday to comment.

In her petition, Farro said she was admitted to Cebu Doctors for a pulmonary infection and bleeding. She prematurely gave birth to her son last July 22, 2009.

Because the infant was prematurely born, he was placed in the hospital’s Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit. Farro told the court she was then discharged on July 24, while her baby remained in the hospital for further treatment.

On Oct. 16, 2009, Dr. Potenciano Larrazabal, president of Cebu Doctors, informed Farro about the management’s plan to transfer the baby to the pediatric ward.

The baby was transferred on Nov. 4 to the pediatric ward, but Farro said she protested this because the ward has exposed her child to infections.

According to the documents she submitted in court, Farro said she talked with Dr. Larrazabal, who also agreed to accept blood donations and offset these against her unpaid hospital bills.

But Billing Supervisor Margie Abellanosa allegedly took her statement of account and instead told Farro to just return the next day to produce any collateral before her baby could be released.

The hospital also imposed three percent interest on the principal amount.

A certification issued by the Provincial Assessor’s Office showed the petitioner does not have any property she could put up as collateral.

Discharging her baby from the hospital, she said, would also prevent hospital bills from further rising. She said she is willing to execute a promissory note acknowledging her debts to the hospital, but that keeping her child from being discharged is certainly unlawful. (GMD)