UNCASVILLE — The father of a 22-year-old who collapsed at Mohegan Sun in 2021 and later died has filed a lawsuit claiming his son was lying on the casino floor for 15 minutes before medical help arrived.

Kamal Bherwani provided CT Insider with an excerpt of casino surveillance video, which shows that no card dealers or other casino employees appear to check on his unconscious son for at least four minutes.

The delay in treatment extended the amount of time Ethan Bherwani’s brain was deprived of oxygen, leading to his death about 10 days later, according to his father, who is executor of his son’s estate.

“It was a preventable tragedy beyond imagination,” Kamal Bherwani said.

The lawsuit, filed against the Mohegan Tribe of Indians and its gaming authority on June 24 , alleges that “negligence and carelessness” led to his son’s death. An identical lawsuit filed in May 2022 was dismissed on a technicality.

The suit alleges that when help for Ethan Bherwani finally arrived, medics failed to administer Naloxone, which could have reversed the effects of the fentanyl that was in cocaine he is believed to have ingested in a casino bathroom.

The man who sold the cocaine to Bherwani had been banned from the casino, where fentanyl was known to have circulated, the lawsuit said.

The drug dealer, who is not named in the suit, is New Haven resident Jerrard Santiago, federal documents show. He pleaded guilty on Jan. 29 in U.S. District Court in New Haven to two counts of intent to distribute and distribution of a controlled substance and is due to be sentenced on Sept. 24.

“Mohegan is a family operation that has taken comprehensive steps over the years to ensure that our patrons are kept safe across our property," Cody Chapman, director of public relations at Mohegan Sun, said in a statement. "Mohegan maintains its own 24 hour/day on premises EMTs and paramedics because our guests are paramount at Mohegan Sun."

"We are saddened by the death of this young man and we appreciate and support the wide-ranging efforts by leaders and other groups to curtail such a serious issue. The fentanyl epidemic is having far too many tragedies every year. This is a national epidemic that needs to be addressed at every turn.”

Unconscious on casino floor

Surveillance video of Bherwani before his collapse shows the young man, wearing a bucket hat, and Santiago approach a blackjack table after what investigators say was a drug transaction in a casino bathroom. Bherwani — who federal authorities say had never met Santiago before and was not known to do heroin or fentanyl — had snorted cocaine with his friends hours earlier and was ready for more, federal court documents show.

According to the video, provided by Bherwani through a New York City public relations company, Ethan Bherwani sat down to play blackjack with Santiago standing next to him at 1:51 a.m. on May 18, 2021. Bherwani’s friends, who had been gambling in a different part of the casino, were believed to be back in the hotel room doing what remained of their cocaine, the federal documents say.