A Saudi Arabian prince accused of failing to honor an agreement to pay Boston Children's $3.5 million for care provided to a Saudi Arabian child denies owing the hospital, according to The Boston Globe.
Boston Children's Hospital sued the prince in April, demanding the $3.5 million for care of a 2-year-old child with type 1 spinal muscular atrophy, a rare genetic disease. According to the lawsuit, Prince Abdelilah bin Abdelaziz bin Abdulrahman Al Faisal Al Saud offered to pay for the care after learning about the child through media reports in Saudi Arabia.
The medication used to treat SMA is not available in Saudi Arabia, so the child was brought to Boston Children's.
According to court documents filed on behalf of the prince June 12, the prince only agreed to pay $750,000 for the child's initial treatment with the SMA drug Spinraza and agreed to pay $100,000 for the family's living expenses in Boston.
As the girl continued to receive treatment, the bills added up, and the hospital kept requesting money that he never agreed to pay, according to court documents.
The court documents are the first public response by the Saudi prince to the hospital's lawsuit.
The child, who is not named in the lawsuit, was admitted to Boston Children's in November 2017 and is still a patient there.
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