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The Alberta government ordered the review after a 44-year-old man died while waiting in an emergency room in Edmonton earlier this week.
Hospital and Surgical 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 and factors leading to the death of Prashanth Sreekumar at Gray Nuns Community Hospital last Monday.
Sreekumar, who was experiencing chest pain, died after allegedly waiting nearly eight hours to see a doctor at the emergency department.
The accountant was in his office when the chest pain began. His client took him to the hospital, Varinder Bhuller, a family friend, said in a telephone interview.
Bullar said initial examinations revealed nothing abnormal, but his blood pressure continued to rise. Sreekumar died of suspected cardiac arrest soon after triage.
“This was completely avoidable. That’s the saddest thing,” Buller said.
“Sometimes we think it's God's will, but this time I think people could have intervened and saved him.”
Buller remembered Sreekumar as a good friend, a man who loved his family and led an active life, often playing cricket.
Acute Care Alberta, the new provincial health agency, said it would participate in the review and implement any recommendations. It said the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has also launched an independent investigation.
CBC News does not have information about how busy the emergency department was that day. In a statement, Covenant Health said it could not comment on the specifics of the patient's care for privacy reasons.
A family friend organized a fundraiser for Sreekumar's family – three children aged three, 10 and 14, and his wife – to support them with their ongoing needs.
“[There's] there's a lot of grief, a lot of feelings of disbelief and disappointment and they don't know what to do,” Buller said of the grieving family.
Sreekumar was the sole breadwinner in the family as his wife stayed home to look after one of their special needs children, he added.
