43 indigent mothers in Ogun get free emergency surgeries

A United Kingdom-based Nigerian entrepreneur and healthcare professional, Toba Ogunremi, has funded 43 emergency surgeries and settled hospital bills for indigent pregnant women and new mothers in Ogun State in a sustained effort to curb maternal mortality.

The humanitarian gesture, according to a statement released on Sunday by his media office, has benefited over 40 women across selected hospitals and focused on critical obstetric cases, including caesarean sections, eclampsia, prolonged labour, and post-delivery complications.

Ogunremi disclosed that some of the beneficiaries were prevented from discharge due to relatively small outstanding balances, which he cleared to secure their freedom and continued care.

He said, “There is this woman who was admitted for eclampsia and cord prolapse. Her total bill stood at N430,000, out of which N169,600 had been paid, leaving a balance of N260,400, which we settled.

“Similarly, another woman admitted for prolonged labour had an outstanding bill of N276,500 after paying N103,500 from a total of N380,000. The balance was also cleared.”

According to him, in some cases, as little as N70,000 stood between patients and their discharge from the hospital, underscoring the severity of financial barriers faced by many families.

He added that an additional N155,000 was recently spent at a general hospital to support emergency cases, while one of the beneficiaries, Mrs Kehinde, received assistance twice before she could be discharged due to her family’s inability to raise funds.

Speaking on how he started the humanitarian work, Ogunremi explained, “It started with a feeling I couldn’t shake. I remember a chance encounter with a desperate husband at a hospital gate years ago.

“I later saw the man again with his wife and child. That moment stayed with me and pushed me to start visiting hospitals, not as a professional, but as someone who could not look away.”

He said many of the cases encountered involved women detained in hospitals after childbirth or those unable to access life-saving procedures due to poverty.

“We found mothers who had just given birth but were held back because they couldn’t pay. Some needed urgent surgeries and had no one to help,” he said.

The beneficiaries were identified through referrals from ward managers, nurses, and resident doctors who flagged urgent cases.

“There was no formal selection process. It was based on immediate need—a doctor saying, ‘This patient needs help today,’” he added.

Ogunremi noted that all surgeries were performed by Nigerian doctors, whom he described as highly skilled despite systemic challenges.

“The issue has never been the competence of our doctors but the system that fails both practitioners and patients,” he said.

He said the intervention had cost tens of millions of naira, all directed at patient care without administrative overhead.

Ogunremi said he aims to scale up the initiative to reach at least 100 beneficiaries next year while calling for a more structured system to identify those in genuine need.

“My goal is to reach about 100 people, but we need a better system to know who truly needs help. So far, we rely on encounters and referrals from healthcare workers,” he said.

He also called on individuals to support vulnerable Nigerians, stressing that many deaths occur not due to a lack of medical expertise but the inability to afford care.

“People are dying because they cannot pay for treatment, not because solutions don’t exist. We must act, even if it is one person at a time,” he said.

Ogunremi reiterated that his focus on maternal health was driven by the devastating impact of losing women during childbirth.

“A woman dying in childbirth is not just a statistic; it is a family tragedy. No woman should die while giving life,” he said.

Public health experts have continued to warn about Nigeria’s high maternal mortality rate, attributing it to poverty, poor access to healthcare, and inadequate funding in the health sector.