The Illinois hospital that treated the newborn who was ripped from his mother’s womb has apologized to Marlen Ochoa-Lopez’s family after they sent a hefty medical bill following the baby’s death.
The newborn, Yovanny Lopez, was cut from 19-year-old Ochoa-Lopez’s womb after two women strangled her to steal her baby. Yovanny passed away at Advocate Christ Medical Center from severe brain damage 53 days later on June 14.
One of the now-charged women, Clarisa Figueroa, 46, claimed for three weeks that she was the one who had just given birth to the baby boy. Her daughter, 24-year-old Desiree, has also been charged in the baby’s death.
Yovanny was on life support for almost two months, and died from lack of oxygen to the brain, said the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office.
However, the 19-year-old’s family and attorney, Frank Avila, said the hospital sent them medical bills weeks after the baby was ripped from the teen’s womb, totalling hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The hospital later apologized in a statement and said it “regrets this error.” It said that the bill was “inadvertently sent.”
“Our hearts and prayers continue to be with the Ochoa-Lopez family during this difficult time,“ the hospital said. ”We have had discussions with the family regarding a bill that was inadvertently sent and we regret this error.
“We take our obligation to patient privacy seriously, and therefore are unable to comment further regarding care, services or billing.”
“According to reports, the hospital sent the family one of the medical bills on June 3, which was more than two weeks after Figueroa was arrested and charged over the incident.
Avila told CBS it was “atrocious” that the family of Ochoa-Lopez had been billed by the hospital, and described its staff as “monstrous” for causing “intentional infliction of emotional distress,” according to the Sun-Times.
“We don’t have the medical records and my client is getting bills for hundreds of thousands of dollars from the hospital that has the Figueroa name on it and that’s atrocious,” he told CBS Chicago.
The Cook County State’s Attorney’s office said the pair were denied bail on July 18 when they appeared in a hearing to face the new charges.
The mother-daughter duo are accused of luring Ochoa-Lopez to their home with the promise of free baby clothes before distracting her and killing her. Then, they allegedly forcefully extracted the baby from the 19-year-old’s womb before allegedly claiming the boy was Clarisa’s.
Mother Ochoa-Lopez was found dead in a garbage can in the backyard of a house in Chicago on May 15 after she went missing on April 23.
The Sun-Times reported that the Figueroas appeared in court on Thursday clad in bright yellow jumpsuits. Judge Mary Marubio ordered both held without bail. They are due in court again on Aug. 6.
Last month, the pair pleaded not guilty to 27 charges, including first-degree murder, kidnapping, and aggravated battery in a gruesome case that shocked Chicago, a city infamous for experiencing hundreds of homicides per year, and made headlines nationwide.
Clarisa’s boyfriend, 46-year-old Piotr Bobak, faces charges of concealing a homicide and obstruction of justice.
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