Mother in India loses her only child to suspected fentanyl overdose in Canada

Up until a week ago, Brampton, Ont. resident Ravneet Panag had never even heard the word fentanyl. 

But all that changed after a frantic phone call from a relative in India who had just been informed her only son had died in Vancouver.

21-year-old Jashanpreet Singh Sandhu died of a suspected fentanyl overdose at St. Paul's Hospital on Feb. 10.

Panag had never met her distant relative Sandhu, but felt compelled to help his grieving mother who had also lost her husband to cancer less than a year ago.

"Our only motive was to help his mother back home because women in India have no social support ... there is no social security for them — there's nothing for them. It's just their families."

In just one day, a GoFundMe campaign raised more than $30,000, surpassing its initial target by more than $5,000.

"I think I have cried 2 or 3 times over the last few days by looking at how generous people are," said Panag.

"We are so overwhelmed with the support we are receiving, to the extent we are asking people to kindly not donate anymore."

The money will go towards helping fly Sandhu's body back home to India and help pay off loans his mother took out to send him to Canada.

"We could have cremated him here but they don't want that. They really want to reunite them one last time." 

'I didn't even know this word fentanyl' 

Panag said Sandhu had been studying at a local college after moving to Canada last June.

She said it's unclear if the 21-year-old had an existing drug problem but it's likely he did not know what he was ingesting. 

"Maybe it was his first time or maybe he was already into it ... He probably had no idea what he was taking ... I didn't even know this word fentanyl." 

The family is now focused on helping Sandhu's mother in India. 

"We cannot do anything for Jashaan now — had we known [something] we could have done [something] then...Now everything that we're doing, we're just doing it for Jashaan's mother."