‘Daddy’s not coming back’: Wife speaks out after Indian man dies waiting for 8 hours in Canada hospital

The wife of an Indian man who died after waiting for nearly eight hours to see a doctor at a Canadian hospital has demanded justice. On December 22, Prashant Sreekumar reached Grey Nuns Hospital in Edmonton complaining of severe chest pain and loss of vision in one eye. Niharika Sreekumar is demanding justice for her husband Prashant. (GoFundMe) At the hospital, he was checked in at triage and then made to sit in the waiting room. Indian man kept waiting at hospitalPrashant, 44, waited nearly eight hours for a bed at the hospital — before collapsing and dying. (Also read: Elon Musk slams Canadian healthcare system over Indian-origin man’s death: ‘As good as DMV’) 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 thought he was fainting, but actually he was dying,” his wife Niharika Sreekumar told The Globe and Mail. “His body was cold. I tried pumping his heart, nothing. He never came back.” Wife of Indian man says their children are grievingNiharika has been left shocked and pained her husband’s sudden death. She is also worried about raising their three children alone. In an interview with CBC News, the Indian-origin woman said that her middle son cries every night. “His bed sheet was soaked in tears,” she said. “My youngest got up and today he said ‘I want to go to Daddy’,” a visibly-upset Niharika said. “I told him, Daddy’s not coming back, ba. He’s become a star in the sky. He was such a good person that God has promoted him to become a star.” Wife demands accountabilityIn a widely-shared video, Niharika was seen standing next to her husband’s body as she said, “All of Grey Nuns hospital have basically killed my husband.” The Indian-origin woman is now demanding justice. She noted how she and her husband paid taxes in Canada, but did not receive help when they needed it. “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 in an interview with Postmedia. “I want justice for Prashant.” (With inputs from PTI)