My brother, Akbar Ali, died on Monday, August 9th, 2021, as a result of the negligence and lack of care he received at St. Michael's hospital, where he had been moved from Ajax hospital. He was involved in a motorcycle accident when a vehicle entered his lane and hit him. Due to a lack of training, the paramedics came on the scene and failed to notice the serious state he was in. Instead of sending him to the hospital, they wasted time asking him questions. When someone with proper expertise should have been able to see that he has a visibly obvious brain injury and internal bleeding. "Why are you breathing so hard?" was questioned of someone who had just been hit and was plainly not in the correct frame of mind. While transporting him to a hospital without a trauma centre, the Durham paramedics did not even activate any sirens. The internet is replete with proof of the amount of deaths that occur in Ontario because paramedics lack the necessary training. When Akbar arrived at the hospital, the nurse immediately recognized that he had lost one of his pupils and was in severe condition. Why couldn't the paramedics get to him quickly enough? Why aren't they given the necessary training and knowledge for such a tragic and dire situation? Why isn’t there a trauma centre in Durham region? Why wasn’t he transferred to the closesttrauma centre? 

Akbar was a courageous man who fought for his life till the end, when the doctors at St Michaels were trying to persuade us, his family, to remove him from life support and donate his organs, all while he was still battling for his life in the ICU room. Akbar's family spent the entire night in a waiting area where they were given incorrect information about his circumstances. The team questioned and insulted the family when they were linked with a doctor and a nurse (who plainly had given up and wanted to cease operating on him). In the middle of telling his family that they couldn't help save Akbar, the nurse angrily interrupted and said to the family, "we're getting ahead of ourselves, I know you guys aren't all sibling." Akbar was a Canadian minority member who came from a collective culture where large immediate families are NOT unusual. The nurse's statement clearly revealed her stereotype and lack of cultural understanding, much alone that it was a significant worry for her when someone was dying and her duty was to soothe the family rather than condemn them.With many questions unanswered and feeling helpless and at the mercy of the condescending doctor and nurse, one of the family members said, "Please try your best as it is not up to you or me, it is up to God," to which the doctor replied, " Actually it is up to me." "This is getting out of hands" one of the nurses said after Akbar died and as the family was in grieving. The nurse's statement made us seem barbaric, perhaps she couldn't understand how individuals grieve in different ways? I feel obligated to note out that there was only one person of colour present, which makes me wonder whether we would have been treated better if there had been more culturally competent or colored professionals present?

I'm not a doctor or a paramedic, but the disparity between the information we received at the Ajax hospital and the information we received at St. Micheals hospital is insane. These professionals most likely get appropriate training, but the training is clearly not impactful and there is definitely a disconnect between what they learn and what is applied in person. Perhaps we should provide them with better tools so that no other family goes through what we suffered. Perhaps the experts were not at their best on that particular day, but that is no excuse for such carelessness that a life is lost and a family to be treated so brutally. Perhaps that was their worst performance yet, or perhaps some families have been treated the worst. This petition aims to raise awareness and improve the health-care system by ensuring that physicians and paramedics are properly equipped and educated. I'm sure we aren't the only ones who have been treated like this. Even though I want to put everything behind me and let my brother rest in peace, I am a humanitarian and don't want other Canadians to go through the same ordeal and lose a loved one because our health-care system in Canada has to be improved. 

My aim for this petition 

- Better and more consistent training for paramedics in Ontario 

- Need for mandatory empathy training @ St. Micheal's hospital and nationwide

- Ensure employees are linking what they learn in real life practice. 

- Trauma Centre in Durham region 

- Better respect, awareness and understanding in the Canadian healthcare system 

- More visible minority health care representation