Otti Frees 18 Indigent Patients from Burden of Medical Bills

By Emmanuel Ugwu

Succour has come to 18 indigent patients who could not pay their medical bills as a top Abia politician, Mr. Alex Otti, picked up the bills.

With this intervention, the patients who could not go home after they were discharged at Madonna Catholic Hospital Umuahia, have now left the health facility and returned to their respective homes.

Otti had visited his friend on admission at the hospital and was recognised by the helpless patients who besieged him and pleaded for his assistance to pay their bills.

Touched by their plight, the former gubernatorial candidate asked them to compile their names with the amount of each patient’s medical bill.

It was in fulfilment of his promise to the patients that Otti sent his media assistant, Mr. Ferdinand Ekeoma and Mr. Mike Akpara, a member of Alex Otti Foundation, to present cheques to offset the medical bills of the affected patients.

The value of the cheques given to each of the benefitting patients ranged from N50,000 to N1.1 million.

Speaking with journalists after the cheque presentation, Ekeoma said the medical intervention by Otti was a normal philanthropic gesture that the former bank boss undertakes on regular basis.

He said his principal was deeply moved by the plight of the patients who could not go home after they were discharged, owing to their inability to pay their bills.

According to him, the cost of the medical intervention was immaterial to Otti, adding that “the most import thing is that the lives of our people have been positively (as) most of the patients lacked the resources to pay for their medical bills”.

The administrator of Madonna Catholic Hospital, Rev Fr Christian Anokwuru lauded Otti for coming to the aid of the patients, adding that some of them had already spent months after they were discharged.