‘Please don’t let me die’: Calgary patients recount long waits in emergency rooms – CBC
Wait times under renewed scrutiny after man’s death last month
Jan 27, 2026
A woman says she spent seven hours in a Calgary emergency room, consulting artificial intelligence for answers as she dealt with a potentially life-threatening condition related to her diabetes.
Another woman says she had to undergo an emergency hysterectomy last year after spending hours losing blood in an emergency room, two weeks after giving birth by C-section.
Stories like these are “the tip of the iceberg,” said Dr. Paul Parks, an emergency room physician and president-elect of the Alberta Medical Association’s emergency medicine section.
They come amid renewed scrutiny about the state of emergency wait times in the province after a 44-year-old man died in December in the emergency room of Edmonton’s Grey Nuns Community Hospital. Prashant Sreekumar’s family said he had waited nearly eight hours to see a doctor for chest pain. The province has ordered a fatality inquiry into his death.
Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/calgary-emergency-room-wait-times-9.7060368
