Sunita Vandyke, the mother of six who recently lost her eye weeks after giving birth at the Suddie Hospital in Region 2, has died.
She died on Friday at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPHC), two days after being referred there from the Leonora Hospital in Region 3 because of the severity of her condition.
Vandyke’s family members are alleging that the GPHC had done nothing to save her. Her mother-in-law, Phyllis Carter, told Guyana Times on Sunday that after Vandyke had been admitted to the GPHC on Wednesday, she had received no treatment at the hospital.
“She was left to die there. They never looked in her direction. Other patients in the ward told us that the doctors never even checked on her. They plugged needles in her head, strapped her down to the bed, and left her to die. She was treated like an animal, and no one is telling us anything; no explanation, no cause of death or anything,” Carter said.
Carter is calling on the authorities to investigate this matter, which had caused her young, healthy daughter-in-law to deteriorate in health until her demise over the course of a few weeks.
“This is a clear picture of how the public health systems work. They had no care, no interest in her condition. They feel that because it’s free, people begging them for a service. They are being paid to do their job!” the distraught woman declared.
Vandyke had been admitted at the Suddie Hospital on the Essequibo Coast in Region Two (Pomeroon-Supenaam) for several weeks, after doctors at the Georgetown Public Hospital had removed one of her eyes without any proper explanation, although she had never had any medical complication with her eye.
Relatives reaching out to Guyana Times on Tuesday last, in calling for a full investigation into the incident, are alleging that Vandyke had been admitted at the Suddie Hospital to give birth, but everything had gone ‘downhill’ after her delivery.
Carter told this publication that Vandyke had delivered a healthy baby at the Suddie Hospital some seven weeks ago; but after the birth of the baby, Vandyke had gone home to her Parika residence and had started to complain of feeling unwell. She had been taken to the Parika Health Centre, where the nurses had administered saline. After receiving the saline, she had started complaining of blurred vision.
“As soon as she get the saline, and we go home, she started complaining (of having problems) with the eye,” Carter said.
She explained that after her daughter-in-law had continued to complain about having blurred vision, she had taken her to the Leonora Cottage Hospital, from where doctors had transferred her to the West Demerara Regional Hospital.
However, she had taken Vandyke to the GPHC after the eye problem had worsened and Vandyke’s condition had deteriorated. “We meet GPHC Emergency (Department) with the eye draining inflammation and the nose bleeding, and they said, ‘That’s not an emergency’. And we waited several hours, and were sent away without seeing a doctor.
“I even went to the boss upstairs to complain that we were not getting to see a doctor, and still we could [not] get help; we were sent away,” Carter said.
The frustrated Carter related that she had then visited the Public Health Ministry to lodge a complaint, and had been directed to the St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, and then to the Eye Clinic at GPHC. When they arrived at the clinic, the doctors had quickly admitted Vandyke for surgery to remove the eye.
“Just so, they say they gotta take out the eye. GPHC and West Dem (hospitals) sabotage my daughter-in-law! They did nothing to help! They never even checked the eye, and we need answers! This girl never had any eye problem!” Carter contends.
Vandyke’s condition had gotten worse, to the point where she had been unable to walk, and had stopped speaking. Since the incident, she had been in and out of hospital, and had been unable to care for her newborn. She had again been taken to the Leonora Cottage Hospital on Monday last, but due to the severity of her condition, had been referred to the GPHC. She died at the GPHC on Friday last.
Carter is calling for a full investigation of this matter. She contends that Vandyke’s medical record would show that she had never suffered from any medical or eye condition.
Attempts to contact officials from GPHC for a comment proved futile.
