Widower breaks down at Brampton, Ont., city hall amid cries for hospital reform

A widower calls for action as concerns grow over rising Group A sepsis infections and their devastating impact nationwide. Adrian Ghobrial has the latest.

The deaths of multiple mothers shortly after giving birth in Canadian hospitals has led the City of Brampton, Ont., to pass a unanimous motion calling for sweeping hospital reforms.

With tears in his eyes, widower Gurinder Sidhu stood before Brampton City Council members on Wednesday outlining his wife’s final moments just days after giving birth to their third child.

On June 19, 40-year-old Ravinder Sidhu arrived at Mississauga’s Credit Valley Hospital to deliver a healthy baby boy. Their family of five was complete and full of love.

The father of three says the delivery went fine, but noted that 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, Sidhu says, Ravinder had trouble speaking.

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

“For four days she struggled. For two of those days, she fought on her own with no help from the doctors in the hospital, she was just given Tylenol and Advil,” recounted a distraught Sidhu.

Sidhu said his wife would did not receive any antibiotics for nearly 30 hours after she started displaying symptoms.

Her cause of death is listed as a Group A strep/sepsis infection. Sidhu is accusing Credit Valley Hospital staff of gross negligence.

‘It baffles me,’ widower says

Sadly, the Sidhu family isn’t alone. On Jan. 19, Celina Klinger Evans died in a London, Ont., hospital two days after giving birth. She too was a mother of three, and once again, a Group A sepsis infection was listed as the cause of death.

“It baffles me that in 2025, a 29-year-old woman can die from an infection from childbirth,” widower William Evans said this past winter.

A motion for change

Since his wife’s tragic postpartum passing, Sidhu has been on a mission to ensure no family has to endure what his is currently living through.

He launched an online petition demanding sepsis screening and early prevention reform, which has amassed more than 15,000 signatures.

Sidhu has also banged on the doors of politicians, which led him to Brampton City Council. That’s where Coun. Navjit Kaur Brar tabled a motion on Wednesday calling for “implementation of standardized sepsis screening and escalation protocols across all health-care settings,” as well as “mandatory training for early identification, rapid intervention, and escalation for all clinical staff.”

“It’s a cry for change and this motion will be that change,” the councillor said, adding that she truly believes “we can prevent deaths.”

“Early intervention is so important, and it can help us make important progress” she added.

Kaur Brar’s motion, which passed unanimously at Brampton City Council, calls for immediate action from Ontario’s Ministry of Health.

In an email to CTV News, the ministry said, “As we continue to work to enhance patient safety standards and improve health outcomes across the province, we expect every hospital to uphold the highest standard of patient care and to comply with requirements under the Public Hospitals Act (PHA) relating to the response and review of critical incidents to ensure they never happen again.”

The ministry added that it expects hospitals to “disclose the findings from this review to the impacted patients, or their family.”

Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown said he hopes that the cries of families like the Sidhus are heard across the country.

“A tragedy at Credit Valley Hospital might not be heard in the noise of government. The hope is that we’re going to build awareness, that we’re going to insert this tragedy into the conversation and fix this gap in our health-care system,” he said. “Hopefully other cities are going to replicate Brampton’s motion and we’re going to hear a chorus of calls to fix what is a hole in our health-care system.”

For Sidhu, he’s sharing his wife’s tragic story in hopes that others don’t have to walk in his and his children’s shoes.

He has one simple plea for provincial governments across Canada: “Make this change now, so we can prevent these future deaths that are totally preventable.”