The mother-in-law of a 22-year-old mother of six who passed away after having her right eye removed, is seeking answers as to the cause of her death.
Sunita Vandyke died three weeks ago, just months after giving birth to her sixth child in February.
According to Vandyke’s mother in law, Phyllis Carter, her son, Brian Oswald Henry and Vandyke had been living together for eight years at her residence in Parika. Carter stated that when the mother of six went to the hospital to deliver her sixth child, everything was fine and she and the baby were healthy.
However, Vandyke, some days after delivering, had suffered what appeared to be a stroke. “She deliver the baby at Suddie and went home to her parents in Essequibo and then she came to Parika and within the third day, she took in like a stroke like when she was washing, Carter stated. Vandyke’s mother-in-law stated that they had taken her to Leonora and to the West Demerara Regional Hospital. They then took her to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).
Carter added that her daughter-in-law never had any problems with her sight or her eyes, but she was, however, complaining about having headaches. Subsequently, she said that Vandyke had told her of feeling as if the right side of her face was numb, while bleeding from her nose. Carter said that they were given a referral to GPHC’s eye clinic and it was there that they were told that her eye would have to be removed. They were given a referral to the eye clinic after she had approached the Ministry of Public Health and lodged a complaint.
“When we reach, the doctor look at the eye and say this eye got to do surgery tomorrow for the eyes to come out. They didn’t say what happened, they just say this girl got to do surgery right away,” Carter told Stabroek News. According to the woman, Vandyke was sent home the following day after the surgery. The woman said that prior to the surgery, she was placed on various medications, including Prednisolone, Ciprofloxacin and Gentamicin eye drops.
Subsequent to the surgery, Carter said that the woman had went back to her parents’ home in Essequibo and was then treated at the Suddie Hospital. Carter added that doctors at Suddie had told Vandyke that her eye should not have been removed. She then returned to Parika to her husband weeks later and again became ill. After she fell ill again, she was taken to the Parika Health Centre, where she was administered saline, after which she told Carter that her vision was blurry.
Vandyke was then taken to the Leonora Hospital, and again transferred to GPHC, where she subsequently died on May 17. Carter added that while she was being treated at GPHC, before her death, she was placed on life support. She reported that other patients at the hospital claimed that doctors did not treat her.
Carter and her son are seeking answers as to what exactly caused the death of Vandyke and why she had to have her eye removed. The woman also refuted claims that her son and Vandyke had gotten into a physical altercation prior to her treatment and subsequent death. She, however, claims that Vandyke’s family has never been accepting of her son and that they had always been at odds with him.
The woman is also seeking answers from Vandyke’s family as to what happened to her body and where she was buried. She said that three of Vandyke’s children, who she now cares for, have been asking for their mother. “We don’t know what to tell them (the children), they always asking, ‘Daddy when you bringing mommy from the hospital?’ cause that’s all they know, is that she went in the hospital,” Carter told Stabroek News.
