THE grandmother of three young children, who lost their 22-year-old mother after her right eye was removed after giving birth, is pleading for assistance to better take care of the children.

Sunita Vandyke, the mother of the three children, lost her eye weeks after giving birth at the Suddie Hospital, Region Two. She died while receiving treatment at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).

The young woman was referred there from the Leonora Hospital in Region Three because of the severity of her condition.

Vandyke’s mother-in-law and grandmother of the three children, Phyllis Carter, recounted to this newspaper that there has been much confusion over the death of the woman.

Carter and Vandyke, along with Carter’s son, lived altogether at Parika. In the days leading up to the delivery of the youngest child, Carter said Vandyke showed no signs of ailment and even when she delivered the child, both she and the child were healthy.

Unfortunately, days later the 22-year-old suffered what Carter said appeared to be a stroke. After visiting a few health centres before eventually being admitted to the GHPC, an eye surgery was done to the young woman and her eye was removed.

Subsequent to the eye surgery, Cater related that Vandyke returned home to her parents in Suddie, where she started to feel ill once again. After another round of visiting health centres for help and treatment, the young woman was eventually taken back to the GPHC on May 16 and died on May 17.

“I don’t understand how all of this happen,” Carter said, adding: “My daughter-in-law was good and healthy, and just like that they said she gotta do an eye surgery and then afterwards she still sick.”

The woman alleged that there has been some malpractice that has led to the death of her daughter-in-law. Moreover, she said she has no clue where Vandyke’s family buried her and neither she nor the three children and their father were given a chance to pay their last respects.

Following the death of the mother, the grandmother is now seeking help to take care of the three children. The eldest child is five years old while the other two siblings are ages four years and six months.

Carter said her main focus right now is on getting some compensation from the hospital in light of her daughter-in-law’s death. This compensation, according to her, will be used to take care of the three children.

“They don’t have a mother and I already old. I don’t know how long more I got…. so I want the compensation so that they could get a good life,” Carter said.