The wife of Prashant Sreekumar, a 44-year-old Indian origin man who died after waiting more than eight hours for treatment at a hospital in Canada, is seeking justice, alleging medical negligence. Sreekumar died at Grey Nuns Community Hospital in Edmonton, the capital of Alberta province.
‘I want justice,’ says wife
“I want justice for my husband. My children’s future is in darkness now. They have left me standing on the streets. Everything has been taken away from us. He was the sole breadwinner of our family and a very respected member of the community,” Prashant Kumar’s wife, Niharika, told DD News.
She said that Prashant and his family had been living in Canada for the past 25 years and were regular taxpayers in the country.
She added, “He needed treatment in Canada for just one day, but they did not give him medical care.”
“If this had happened in India, he would have received treatment within 10 minutes, and Prashant’s life could have been saved,” she further said, before adding, “My husband could have been saved. Things could have been completely different.”
What happened at the hospital
Sreekumar was rushed to the hospital on December 22 after he complained of chest pain while at work. At Grey Nuns Hospital, he was checked in at triage and asked to wait in the waiting room.
Hospital staff conducted an electrocardiogram (ECG) and gave him Tylenol for pain. Despite repeated checks of his blood pressure, he continued to wait for several hours.
According to local media reports, after more than eight hours, Sreekumar was finally called into the treatment area, where he collapsed and died within seconds, reportedly due to cardiac arrest.
Sreekumar is survived by his wife, Niharika, and their three children, aged three, 10, and 14.
Due to the need to care for their youngest child round-the-clock, Niharika, who is an accountant by profession, had quit her job, making Sreekumar the family’s sole earning member.
Indian community leader in Canada, Varinder Bhullar, said that hospital staff had conducted an ECG and blood tests, which failed to detect any immediate problem, giving what he described as a “false indication.”
He, however, added that the staff ignored his high blood pressure. “However, his blood pressure kept on going up. And that part, I think, was ignored; that warning was ignored by the health care professionals,” he added.
He dismissed allegations of racial discrimination and said the healthcare professionals were not racist. He claimed that another patient, a white man suffering from chest pain, was also made to wait for nine hours, citing a Facebook comment by the individual.
In a statement to Postmedia, Karen MacMillan, interim chief operating officer of acute and primary care at Covenant Health, said he cannot comment on the case at the time since it is being investigated.
“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.
External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said that Sreekumar was a Canadian citizen and that the matter falls under the responsibility of the Canadian government.
“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 said during a media briefing on December 26.
(With inputs from PTI)