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A Utah man posted on Reddit.com a shocking statement that shows he and his wife received an extra charge from the hospital from when their newborn son was born via c-section.
The new father, Ryan Grassley said in a statement:
I had to pay $39.35 to hold my baby after he was born.
Ryan’s picture was posted Monday, and as you can see, it already has been viewed more then three million times.
In an interview, the dad said, “The nurse let me hold the baby on my wife’s neck/chest. Even borrowed my camera to take a few pictures for us. Everyone involved in the process was great, and we had a positive experience. We just got a chuckle out of seeing that on the bill.”
Other Reddit users expressed disgust and one person who’s user name is “FiftySixer” saying, “I didn’t know that hospitals charged for it, but doing ‘skin to skin’ in the operating room requires an additional staff member to be present just to watch the baby. We used to take all babies to the nurse once the NICU team made sure everything was okay. ‘Skin to skin’ in the OR is a relatively new thing and requires a second Labor and Delivery RN to come in to the OR and make sure the baby is safe.”
The hospital later responded in a statement by Janet Frank saying:
“In general, Utal Vally Hospital is an advocate for skin-to-skin contact between a mother and newborn directly after birth. Skin-to-skin is a best practice with proven benefits for both mom and baby. We do everything possible to allow skin-to-skin after both vaginal and c-section births. In the case of a c-section, where the bedside caregiver is occupied caring for the mother during surgery, an additional nurse is brought into the OR to allow the infant to remain in the OR suite with the mother. This is to ensure both patients remain safe. There is an additional charge associated with bringing an extra caregiver into the OR. The charge is not for holding the baby, but for the additional caregiver needed to maintain the highest levels of patient safety.”
Does this charge exist in Houston?
So who’s recently had a baby by c-section and who’s looked at your hospital bill and seen an extra charge?
Via:ktla
