A Kampala High Court judge reunited a four-month-old infant with his parents after a dispute involving an outstanding hospital bill, during which the facility illegally “detained” the newborn in foster care and threatened to sell him to a children’s home, according to the mother.
Last Friday, reports The Monitor, High Court Judge Esta Nambayo officially handed over the baby to his biological parents, Saloome Aturinde and Bridgers Alinda Mugenyi, after a paternity-proving DNA test at the Government Analytical Laboratory.
The judge had called for the test after a claim from Aturinde that she was not certain whether the baby brought before court was hers, reports New Vision.
On 30 August, the court had ordered Rosewell Women and Children Hospital to carry the costs for the DNA test “in the interest of justice for keeping the baby away from his mother for months”.
Nambayo said the premature baby was detained by Rosewell at a critical stage of his life, when it was vital that the infant be breastfed by his mother.
She said at worst, the hospital should have detained the father or mother so that the baby could be provided for.
The court previously heard that the child was held as collateral security before being placed into foster care at Loving Hearts Babies Home, with the hospital reporting a case of baby abandonment to the police.
Court documents indicate that on 8 May, Aturinde gave birth by Caesarean section at the doctors’ recommendation.
Three days later, the hospital gave the couple two separate bills. The child’s father, however, said he did not paid the full amount, because the hospital had detained his wife for four days from the time she ought to have been discharged.
“I asked the hospital to give us the baby but they declined,” he said. The staff also prohibited his wife from breastfeeding the newborn.
Aturinde said the continued illegal detention of her baby by the hospital, pending payment of outstanding medical bills and using the baby as collateral security, subjected the infant to inhumane, cruel and degrading treatment.
“Denying me access to breastfeed or even deliver pumped breast milk, was inhuman and cruel … and has subjected my baby to health risks associated with not breastfeeding, and me to psychological torture,” she said
The couple said the hospital had threatened to sell the infant to the Sanyu Babies Home if they didn’t cough up the balance of the payment, “thereby treating the baby as a commodity”.
The judge adjourned the case to 17 October for cross examination of the applicants and the respondents.
New Vision article – Detained baby hearing case resumes (Open access)
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