The wife of a man who died of an apparent cardiac arrest while waiting in an Edmonton emergency department earlier this week is calling for accountability amid an Alberta government review into his death.
Niharika Sreekumar said the past Monday started like any other morning with her husband, Prashanth Sreekumar.
“He got up a little earlier than I and he made chai tea for me and himself. And I woke up hearing the noise in the kitchen, and I was like, oh, it looks like he’s awake. And so I just came, I hugged him, and we enjoyed the morning tea together,” she told CTV News Edmonton.
“I said, ‘Prashanth, you know what? Just maybe you can take time off today. You know, it’s like, Christmas is just around the corner, and maybe we can do something with the kids at home just like that.’”
But Prashanth, the 44-year-old father of three children – aged three, 10 and 14 – went into the office and told his wife he would be back early.
It was at work that he began having chest pains. A client drove him to Grey Nuns Community Hospital, an acute care facility in the Mill Woods area of south Edmonton.
He died after allegedly waiting nearly eight hours to see a doctor at the ER.
Niharika Sreekumar recalls being at home with her two children when she received a call from her husband’s client. Shortly thereafter she was making a trip to the hospital with her eldest child.
She met her husband and father-in-law in the emergency department, where the two had been waiting for what she estimates was two hours by then. By that time, Sreekumar’s pain had gotten worse, she said.
“He can’t sit, he can’t stand, he can’t walk, he can’t do anything,” she said. He was given what Niharika said was three Tylenol and told to keep waiting.
In a phone interview, family friend Varinder Bhuller said initial checkups hadn’t shown anything abnormal about Prashanth’s condition, but his blood pressure kept climbing.
Niharika said she left briefly to look after her children, but not before asking about the wait time.
She says she was told it was the family’s decision on whether to go to another emergency room, but his chest pain was not considered acute. After she left, Prashanth called to tell her he had vomited but was still not being seen.
After being taken to a room, which his family says was around the eight-hour mark, Prashanth died from an alleged cardiac arrest.
“When his name was called, and he was taken inside, within a fraction of a second, he stood up and passed out … he fell on the floor within no time,” Niharika said.
Prashanth Sreekumar was the family’s sole breadwinner, as his wife stayed home to look after one of their children with special needs. A family friend has set up a fundraiser for the family to support them.
Niharika’s devastation, she says, has become fury.
“I am ready to look into their eyes and tell them that I am here to get justice for Prashanth,” she said.
“I will not let my tears dry. I will not let this fire die off anytime soon, while I’m alive.”
Alberta government review
Grey Nuns Hospital is a facility that falls under Covenant Health. In turn, Covenant Health is overseen by provincial body Acute Care Alberta (ACA).
On Friday, ACA released a statement saying Covenant Health had initiated a review into Sreekumar’s death to “fully understand the circumstances and identify any contributing factors in this case.”
“(ACA) will work closely with Covenant to ensure and support implementation of any recommendations,” said spokesperson Christine Myatt.
Covenant Health, in an emailed statement, told CTV News that the Sreekumar case was also with the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
“We offer our sympathy to the patient’s family and friends,” said Karen Macmillan, the interim acute and primary care chief operating officer. The statement noted that they can’t provide further details into his death due to privacy regulations but that the “patient was receiving care.”
In a social media post, minister of hospital and surgical health services Matt Jones said he had directed ACA and Covenant Health to jointly review the death of Prashanth Sreekumar.
Remembering Prashanth Sreekumar
Bhuller recalled Prashanth as a good friend, a person who loved his family and lived an active life, often playing cricket.
Prashanth was born and raised in India, his wife said, but often told her he was “made in Canada.” He was a Canadian citizen for 25 years.
“That’s how I want people to know him. He was very proud to be here. He was very proud of the Canadian system, the Canadian culture, the Canadian way of life,” she said.
“Very educated, a very smart businessperson, a very customer-oriented businessperson … he was a very down-to-earth person. He stayed behind the scenes and helped so many people.”
Niharika says her kids are “shattered.”
“My daughter is angry. She’s a teenager … there’s no good time for you to lose your parents, especially a father like Prashanth,” she said. “He was an ideal father.”
She said she’s grateful from the outpouring of support her and her family have received by the community.
“I give the credit to Prashanth … Please stay with us to the end. We cannot, we should not give up.”
With files from The Canadian Press and CTV News Edmonton’s Gates Guarin
