Family mourns father who died in Edmonton hospital ER at funeral

Grief-stricken family and friends mourned the death of Prashant Sreekumar at his funeral on Wednesday after he died in the emergency room of an Edmonton hospital after waiting for eight hours to be seen for chest pains on Dec. 22.

“I can’t describe the pain,” his wife, Niharika Sreekumar, said through tears to about 200 mourners at the Edmonton Crematorium and Funeral Home on Roper Road.

“If I am the body, Prashant is the soul. I will cherish and live with the memories I have created with my soul ‘til I meet my soul again,” she said, adding she is praying for strength.

“Because today, there’s just not only one cremation. There are two. One: Prashant. I take a vow to cremate my soul.”

Prashant Sreekumar, a 44-year-old accountant, died in the emergency room at Grey Nuns Hospital in Edmonton shortly after being called to see a doctor.

The Alberta government, with the cooperation of Covenant Health, is reviewing the death after his wife spoke out publicly, calling for an investigation. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner is conducting a separate investigation.

At the funeral on Wednesday, Prashant Sreekumar was remembered as a loving husband and father of three, as a hard-working man who had strong values. Speakers noted he moved to Canada with his parents in 2002, in part because of the country’s reputation for strong healthcare.

His children spoke lovingly about how they would remember their father.

Divik, Prashant Sreekumar’s young son, recalled how his father played with him and his siblings, kicking a ball or letting them tackle him after dinner.

“That used to be the best thing ever before we used to go to sleep,” he said. “He never got angry at us, and he always smiled. He was the best dad for me. Nobody could to replace him.”

His daughter, Divya, thanked her father for the lessons he taught her.

“I know that wherever he is, he is watching, and he will see me try, he will see me grow. He’s seeing me live the lessons he taught me, and I know without a doubt he is proud,”

“I miss you more than words can say, but I promise you this – I will not waste whatever you gave me. I will carry your name with honour, and I will make you proud.”

Other mourners also recalled him fondly, including Nadeem Chaudhry, who has known Prashant Sreekumar for about eight years and worked with him.

“He was very professional and easy to speak to as well,” he told reporters after the funeral service. “Always positive, not your typical accountant from that angle.”

Chaudhry and others at the funeral also called for changes to the healthcare system in light of his death.

“I think it’s really sad. I haven’t seen him for a little while, and I see him under these circumstances because of a broken system. If this is what it takes before we realize that something has to be done. Is this what it takes, a death?” Chaudhry said.

Family friend Varinder Bhullar, giving a speech during the ceremony, said, “This is not a political platform, but Prashanth was not the first person to be lost to this collapsed healthcare system, and I hope he’s the last one.”

Former MLA and emergency doctor Raj Sherman also attended. While he didn’t know Prashant Sreekumar personally, the two attended the same cultural society.

Sherman said a public investigation into his death, rather than an internal review, is necessary.

“We have a waiting room full of sick, dying patients, who we can’t get in. This is a failure of the system and a healthcare system failure, and we need an independent public investigation,” he said.