A new mother has been shocked with a nearly million-dollar bill after her newborn was treated in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
Janice Hernandez delivered her baby, Aliana, in late October, only to discover her daughter had Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS), an infrequent disorder affecting about one in 20,000 babies, characterized by symptoms such as low muscle tone and feeding difficulties.
Due to these complications, the baby, born via emergency C-section, was admitted to the NICU for a stay that lasted seven weeks before she was finally discharged.
The 25-year-old mother expressed her outrage on TikTok, trying to comprehend the nearly $750,000 charge.
“I just got the bill for my daughter’s NICU stay, do you guys want to know how much it is? Do you want to converse, have a conversation about the price? $738,360 freaking dollars. Almost a million dollars,” stated Hernandez, who resides in Leno, a city northwest of Nevada, about two hours from California’s capital, Sacramento.
“Then I decided to take a look through the itemised bill because they sent every single little thing that they charged for and I swear there’s things that they didn’t do and I swear there’s things that they’re overcharging for.
“For example, I noticed on the bill that there’s a little tiny bit of Aquaphor that they gave me that I actually still have – $25 for a tiny tube of Aquaphor that I thought the nurse was just giving me to be cute and give it for free. No ma’am!”
She added: “They made sure to charge for every little tiny thing, damn! Like that’s crazy.”
The TikTok video quickly gained traction, going viral with over three million views, leaving viewers worldwide stunned by the exorbitant costs associated with childbirth complications in the U.S.
https://www.tiktok.com/@username/video/7459466331696532782
In a subsequent video, Hernandez, who relocated to Nevada from Brooklyn, New York, remarked: “Imagine if I didn’t have insurance. I’d have to pay all of this.
“Here in America, just to breathe costs money and so of course when you step foot into a hospital, they start charging you automatically.
“I just wish that America would get its healthcare system together.”
Luckily, Hernandez had insurance, sparing her from the entire $738,360 charge, though she still faced a significant financial burden.