Premature twins battling for life, await financial assistance

Premature twins battling for life, await financial assistance Lily B. Libo-on / 19 August 2013 Premature twin boys, Aadi and Arnav, born to an Indian father and a Filipina mother, are fighting for their lives in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) of the Dubai Hospital and are in dire need of financial assistance from kind-hearted individuals. Their mother, Andrea Rivera,  married to Gaurav Rawat, an Indian, was scheduled to give birth on November 26 this year but they were born prematurely on August 2, just six-and-a-half months into Andrea’s pregnancy at Mediclinic City Hospital, after she suffered from profuse bleeding. Both the parents are working here in Dubai, but their health insurance cards could only pay the Mediclinic City Hospital for 11 days of incubation at the rate of Dh10,000 per child per day, since the birth of their twin sons.  They could no longer use the same health insurance cards to pay for the hospitalisation of their twin sons in Dubai Hospital, where the twins were shifted on August 11 for another two-month incubation. “We have been asked to make a down payment of Dh40,000, which I took as a cash advance from my company. Dubai Hospital is charging us Dh3,900 daily for each baby in the NICU. But, still we decided to shift our twins to this government hospital. In Mediclinic City Hospital, we were daily being charged Dh3,500 a baby for the incubator alone, in addition to Dh1,400 for the ventilator, and then every time the doctor came to check on them, we had to pay for professional fees plus prescribed medicines that totalled our bill for 11 days to be Dh220,00,” Andrea said. She said that Dr Laila Matar Al Muhairi, head of NICU at Dubai Hospital, told her that Arnav, the younger twin, still has an open pipe in his heart, which needs to be closed either by medication or if, after some time, through operating on him. “With operation, we have to raise Dh800,000 to Dh1,000,000. Of this, some Dh450,000 more or less will go for the NICU. Our health insurance card can no longer cover this payment, so we are asking kind-hearted individuals to help us save our twins,” Andrea said. “They are our first babies, and we want to do the best for them. My husband and I are both earning but even if we merge our monthly income, we may not be able to raise the said amount for their hospital bills,” she added. “We humbly beg for your generous and kind assistance to help our twin babies. This is not an easy step for both of us, but we set our pride aside for their welfare, as they are still in the Dubai Hospital. The heart pipe of my elder twin Aadi is closing, but he is still receiving medication, which started at Mediclinic City Hospital, for the same. We will appreciate your kindness and compassion. God bless you and your family,” Andrea said. lily@khaleejtimes.com Taylor Scott International