'I want justice,' wife of man who died in Canadian hospital waiting triage

Toronto: Wife of a 44-year-old Indian-origin man who died due to suspected cardiac arrest awaiting treatment for over eight hours at a Canadian hospital wants to see staff at the facility held accountable, a media report has said.

On Saturday, an Indian community leader drew attention to the inadequacy of hospital beds in Canada leading to a late triage that resulted in the death of Prashant Sreekumar at Grey Nuns Hospital in Edmonton, capital of Alberta province in northwest Canada.

Prashant, an accountant, was taken to the hospital after he experienced severe chest pains while at work on December 22. At the hospital, he was checked in at triage and then made to sit in the waiting room.

Hospital staff did an electrocardiogram (ECG), offered him some Tylenol for his pain, but kept him waiting even as nurses checked Prashant’s blood pressure. After more than eight hours, when Prashant was finally called into the treatment area, he died within seconds in what was apparently a cardiac arrest, local media said.

“I want justice for Prashant,” Niharika said in an interview with Postmedia late on Friday.

“She wants to see hospital staff held accountable for the way her husband was treated in the emergency department, and questions whether negligence or even racism played a role,” Calgary Sun, one of the news outlets of the parent company Postmedia, said.

“We are all Canadian citizens. We have worked and paid so much into the tax bucket in this country and the one time Prashant needed medical help, he was not given it,” Niharika said.

Prashant’s sudden passing has left Niharika devastated, the Calgary Sun said, adding, at the same time, she doesn’t know how she will financially sustain herself and three children, aged three, 10 and 14.

Like Prashant, Niharika too is an accountant. However, due to their youngest child needing 24/7 care, Prashant had taken on the role of the sole breadwinner, the news outlet added.

Meanwhile, family friend and Indian community leader Varinder Bhullar, who would use Prashant’s accounting services, said Canada's health care system is deteriorating. “It's getting worse,” as compared to the time 30 years ago when he had come to Canada, he said.

Pointing out that typically, people with chest pain do get attention promptly, Bhullar said, “In this case, they did do an ECG when he walked into the ward with chest pain. There was no issue in the ECG. Then they did some blood work, in which too, they did not detect anything,” he told PTI Videos.

So, he said, he believes it kind of gave them a “false indication.” “However, his blood pressure kept on going up. And that part, I think, was ignored, that warning was ignored by the health care professionals,” Bhullar said.

“They did notice that his blood pressure was going up and that is where I think the mistake happened. But at the same time, there has been no increase in beds. And that is also a root cause of it,” Bhullar said, referring to the inadequacy of hospital beds per capita and other hospital infrastructure in Canada.

Bhullar also pointed out how this was not an isolated incident and said, a lot of community members approach him for similar issues.

He however categorically refused to term this as a 'racial' case.

“No, completely no. From healthcare professionals, I have never experienced any racism. In fact, on my social media page, there was a comment by a white person, who said he was sitting on the next chair when Prashant Shreekumar was waiting. He was waiting for nine hours with chest pain as well.” “I would not say this is related to racism. But I would say this is negligence either by the healthcare professional or it's a system failure where the waits are too long,” Bhullar said.

Three days after her husband's death, Niharika told Postmedia, “I was enjoying my life, now I’m going to just live every day hoping that it will pass.” “I loved him so dearly. He was not only my husband, he was my only friend in this country. I don’t have as many friends. He had so many friends. What am I gonna do now?” In a statement to Postmedia, Karen MacMillan, interim chief operating officer of acute and primary care at Covenant Health, said the case is currently with the office of the chief medical examiner and cannot comment on the specifics at this time.

“We are deeply saddened regarding the death of a 44-year-old male patient at the Grey Nuns Community Hospital in Edmonton on December 22, 2025. We offer our sympathy to the patient’s family and friends. There is nothing more important than the safety and care of our patients and staff,” the statement said.

In New Delhi, responding to a question on Prashant's death, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on Friday that he was a Canadian citizen and the government there should look into the matter.

“The person is of Indian origin but he happens to be, I understand, a Canadian national. So the Canadian government should take responsibility in the matter,” Jaiswal told a media briefing.