The Alberta government has ordered a review after a 44-year-old man died while waiting to see a doctor in the emergency department at an Edmonton hospital earlier this week.
Health Minister Matt Jones said in a social media post that he has directed Acute Care Alberta and Covenant Health to jointly review the circumstances surrounding the death of Prashanth Sreekumar at Grey Nuns Community Hospital on Monday.
Sreekumar, an accountant and father of three, had gone to the emergency department after experiencing chest pain.
A family friend says he waited nearly eight hours before suffering an apparent cardiac arrest.
“It was completely avoidable. That’s the sad part,” said Varinder Bhuller, a close family friend, in a phone interview. “Sometimes we think it’s God’s will, but this time I think humans could have intervened enough to save him.”
Bhuller said Sreekumar was at his office when the pain began and was driven to the hospital by a client. Initial assessments did not show anything abnormal, but his blood pressure continued to rise, Bhuller said.
Premier Danielle Smith also extended condolences to the family in a social media post, saying there will be a “complete review of this matter.”
Acute Care Alberta, the province’s new health authority, confirmed it will take part in the review and implement any recommendations.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has also launched an independent investigation.
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In a joint statement, Alberta NDP health critic Sarah Hoffman and Edmonton-Meadows MLA Jasvir Deol called the death a “terrible tragedy” and renewed calls for better hospital staffing and increased investment in public health care.
“Albertans deserve timely, appropriate care when they seek help in emergency rooms,” the statement said.
According to his wife, Niharika Sreekumar, her husband was in severe pain for hours while waiting in the emergency department.
In an interview with Global News, Sreekumar explained that initial tests did not show anything abnormal, but his blood pressure continued to rise.
“You are begging for your life right there,” she said. “And you’re begging it from somebody who has the power. It was the ugliest feeling of my lifetime.”
She said she was at home with their children when she learned her husband had gone to the hospital.
“We were texting each other, what’s going on,” she said. “They said the ECG had come back and he was waiting on blood work.”
Later, she said, she received a phone call from her husband while he was still in the waiting area.
“He called me with his voice trembling, not being able to speak,” she said. “He said, ‘It’s hurting me a lot.’”
She rushed to the hospital with one of their children and found her husband still waiting.
“He was in so much pain,” she said. “We kept going up there and saying, ‘He has chest pain. Something is wrong.’”
Sreekumar’s wife said her husband was healthy and active, often playing cricket, and had no warning signs before the incident.
“He was very healthy. He was exercising. He was eating healthy food,” she said. “It just doesn’t make sense.”
She also pushed back against online speculation following his death.
“Prashanth was a Canadian citizen,” she said. “Twenty-five years in this country. He loved Canada.”
Bhuller said Sreekumar was the family’s sole income earner while his wife stayed home to care for one of their children with special needs.
A GoFundMe fundraiser set up by a student of Sreekumar, has already raised thousands of dollars to support the family.
In the fundraiser, the family has called for a transparent investigation and accountability.
Elon Musk also took to social media sharing his thoughts on Canada’s health-care system after seeing a video regarding the incident involving the father.
“When the government does medical care, it is about as good as the DMV,” Musk wrote on X as he reshared a video that showed the man’s wife recapping her husband’s death.
“We don’t know what the next step will be,” Bhuller said. “Right now, there’s a lot of grief, disbelief and frustration.”
– With files from Global News’ Sarah Komadina and The Canadian Press
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