‘We have been devastated’: Brampton man calls for accountability after wife dies from sepsis following birth of newborn son

A husband is calling for justice against an Ontario hospital after his wife died from a case of sepsis after giving birth to their third child.

Everything started off fine after Ravinder Kaur Sidhu gave birth to her third child, but she would never make it back to her home in Brampton, Ont., dying days later at the hospital. Her husband, Gurinder Sidhu, says she died from postpartum sepsis after a multi-organ failure, something he believes could have been prevented if her symptoms were properly addressed at the start.

The couple went to Mississauga’s Credit Valley Hospital on June 18 and in the early morning hours the following day, they welcomed their newborn son.

Sidhu says the delivery went fine, but noted Ravinder had a tear in her vagina that required stitches.

According to a timeline of events compiled by Sidhu, Ravinder broke out in a fever and violent shakes at around 11:15 a.m. For a brief period of time, Sidhu says Ravinder had trouble speaking.

“She’s vomiting, she has so much pain in the pelvic area,” Sidhu recounted. He said the doctors conducted a blood test but not the type that would determine whether bacteria were growing in her blood stream.

“They should have administered broad-based antibiotics while you wait for the blood culture (test) and whatever comes in the blood culture, then you do the... targeting antibiotics, but nothing was done in our case and the whole day was wasted.”

Sidhu says his wife would not receive any antibiotics for about 30 hours after she started displaying symptoms.

On June 20, Sidhu says, Ravinder’s sister—an ICU nurse practicing in Buffalo, N.Y.—drove to Credit Valley to advocate for her sister “after observing gross negligent behaviour” at the hospital. Sidhu said her sister warned that Ravinder appeared to be going through septic shock but that observation was ignored.

Sidhu says Ravinder developed Group A strep bacterial infection at the Mississauga-based hospital. The attending doctors first believed Ravinder’s pain was caused by giving birth but when they suspected she had sepsis, Sidhu said, they changed their theory to suggest the infection stemmed from an acupuncture treatment she received a few days prior—ignoring the second-degree tear she developed from giving birth.

The infection, Sidhu says, severely damaged his wife’s uterus and spread down to her leg.

On June 21 she received a leg debridement surgery—a procedure to remove infected tissue—as she had developed necrotizing fasciitis, a flesh-eating disease that can occur in childbirth or surgery. It is something that should be treated quickly to prevent the infection from spreading and before sepsis develops, according to the Sepsis Alliance, a U.S.-based patient advocacy organization.

Sidhu said the obstetrics team did not first find any visible signs of infection when they examined Ravinder’s uterus intraoperatively, and so they accepted the leg had been the most urgent source of her pain. However, hours later, Sidhu’s notes say she was rushed for a hysterectomy where her ovaries and uterus were determined to be “completely necrotic.”

On the afternoon of June 22, Ravinder was transferred to Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. An operative report, reviewed by CTV News Toronto, notes they performed a left aortofemoral bypass, a procedure that creates a new route for blood to flow.

Ravinder died at Sunnybrook in the early morning on June 23. Sunnybrook declined to comment, citing the need to protect patient privacy.

‘Red flags’

Mansour Haeryfar, an immunology professor at Western University, tells CTV News’ Adrian Ghobrial that sepsis is a heavy-handed immune response to an infection, potentially resulting in the production of inflammatory mediators.

“What we call a cytokine storm, that could actually result in collateral damage to vital organs and that could be potentially really deadly,” Haeryfar said in an interview on Tuesday. “Usually, when you have that kind of response, if it’s not controlled in the clinic, there could be really fatal consequences.”

It is essentially a race against time to treat sepsis, Haeryfar said, as early detection and diagnosis are key to prevent any long-term complications of a person’s immune response or to their vital organs. The professor even pointed to the acronym TIME for telling signs someone has contracted sepsis, standing for temperature, infection, mental decline and excessive illness.

“When you see those red flags, you have to intervene and a lot of professionals are actually trained in the critical care and ICU units to deal with these types of symptoms,” Haeryfar said.

‘She was ignored’

“We have been devastated. Whatever we built in our lives has gone. She was the centre of our universe for our kids,” Sidhu said. Dozens of Ravinder’s loved ones—from patients to colleagues and friends—shared tributes online following her passing, expressing heartfelt condolences for her and the family.

The 35-year-old accountant says he now is navigating how to carry their family forward, left to figure out what to do with his late wife’s three physiotherapy clinics while being a father to their two sons and daughter, who are all under the age of eight years old.

“She was involved in every single step,” Sidhu said, adding he is now looking at selling their businesses off—something they both worked so hard for.

Ontario’s Ministry of Health called Ravinder’s death “tragic and troubling,” saying it expects all hospitals provincewide to maintain the “highest standard of patient care,” and to follow the review and disclosure requirements detailed under the Public Hospitals Act for critical incidents.

Sidhu wants to see accountability from Credit Valley and has since filed complaints against the hospital and with the regulatory College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario and Patient Ombudsman. The CPSO said it could not comment on Sidhu’s complaint unless it has resulted in a public outcome under the legislation. The Patient Ombudsman also could not directly comment on Sidhu’s complaint, but said it works with both the complainant and the health-care organization involved to understand what exactly happened and whether or not there was a fair and reasonable resolution.

“All those who are involved should be held accountable,” Sidhu said. “When a patient is in such a state and nobody cared, and she was ignored, totally ignored, like, what was happening to her. And if this is not killing, then what it is, they did nothing. They waited—just for a simple $2 antibiotics—they waited for 30 hours.”

Trillium Health Partners—which oversees Credit Valley—extended condolences to Ravinder’s family, calling her death a “profound loss” and offered their thoughts to all who are grieving. However, the health-care organization could not directly comment on Ravinder’s medical details, citing patient privacy.

“We take the concerns raised by our patients and families very seriously. As part of our commitment to the highest standards of care, we have a thorough review process led by an interdisciplinary team of clinical experts,” Trillium said in an emailed statement.

“Questions about symptom recognition, signs of illness, treatment timelines, and transfer decisions are at the very heart of our review process. We ensure these are addressed directly with patients and families.”

Sidhu also launched an online petition with more than 4,900 signatures as of Wednesday morning, outlining a call to action for an independent review of all care decisions made during Ravinder’s stay and for the hospital’s internal investigation to be released to the public.

An investigation is still underway and is expected to be completed in the coming months.

Ravinder’s death has shaken Sidhu’s family to their core, he said, adding he hopes no other family has to experience the sort of trauma that comes from a sudden loss like this.

“We were (a) very happy family and we were living our Canadian dream,” Sidhu said.

With files from CTV News National’s Adrian Ghobrial