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August 25, 2024A Sacramento woman died at the hospital. Her family, unaware, searched for her for more than a year
A lawsuit filed in California alleges a hospital misplaced a patient and failed to notify her family. Here is what the family says happened:
Jessie Peterson suffered a diabetic episode and was taken to a hospital in Sacramento, California, on April 6, 2023. The 31-year-old spoke with her mother on the phone two days later, asking to be picked up from the hospital.
But that phone call would be the last time her family heard from her.
Peterson’s mother called the hospital three days later, only to be told there was no one there by that name. She said, after persisting, she was told Jessie left the hospital against the advice of her doctors.
Peterson’s family began a relentless search, filing a missing persons report, reaching out to the community, posting flyers with her photo throughout the city, even getting her name added to the US Department of Justice website for missing persons.
Finally, more than a year after her disappearance, a phone call from a detective with the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office gave them the news they had dreaded: A death certificate had been issued for Jessie.
One of Jessie’s sisters went to the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office but was told her remains were not there. Instead, she was told to contact the hospital.
Peterson’s mother, Ginger Congi, reached someone at the hospital who told her they would call back. No call came immediately, but a mortuary later contacted Congi and said Jessie’s body had been found at one of the hospital’s off-site cold storage facilities.
Her body was too decomposed for an autopsy.
As it turned out, Jessie had died about two hours after her last call to her mother.
Jessie’s family sues hospital for negligence
Jessie’s fate was detailed in a $25 million dollar lawsuit filed against the hospital.
In the suit, her family said the hospital never notified them of her death and misplaced her body.
The lawsuit accuses Dignity Health/Mercy San Juan Medical Center of negligence, negligent handling of a corpse, negligent infliction of emotional distress and violating California Health and Safety Code.
“We extend our deepest sympathies to the family during this difficult time,” said Dignity Health in a statement. “We are unable to comment on pending litigation.”
Jessie Peterson was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when she was 10 years old, family attorney Marc Greenberg told CNN. She had been hospitalized for complications of the disease approximately 20 times throughout her life, including twice in the previous months before her death and again for a final time on April 6, 2023, Greenberg said. At times, she battled with addiction and homelessness, he said.
The day after her death, Peterson’s body was taken to a nearby morgue.
“On April 9, 2023, Mercy San Juan hospital transferred Jessie’s body to a cold storage facility. Jessie was placed on Shelf Number Red 22 A and forgotten,” the complaint states.
“Jessie’s family was not notified of Jessie’s passing, despite extensive previous contact between the hospital and Jessie’s family, as well as the fact that Ginger was listed as Jessie’s next of kin,” the suit states.
On April 4, 2024, some 362 days after she died, a death certificate was issued for Jessie Peterson, signed by a doctor at Mercy San Juan Medical Center who is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
Just over a week later, a Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office detective told the family Peterson had died.
It is unclear what led to the delay in Peterson’s death certificate being issued. California’s Health and Safety Code states the attending physician must complete the information within 15 hours of a patient’s death.
Decomposition over the course of the year Peterson’s body was in storage would not allow for an open casket funeral or even for an autopsy to be conducted to determine if there was any medical malpractice, the lawsuit states.
“Because Jessie’s death was not reported to family for a year after her death, an autopsy to determine whether medical malpractice played any role in her death was rendered impossible,” according to the filing.
“When they think of her now, they think of her on a shelf in a body bag instead of how she was,” said Greenberg of Peterson’s family. “They don’t really have the closure of knowing what the hell really happened.”
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A hospital told family their daughter had checked out. They found out a year later her body was in storage
A California hospital is being sued for allegedly taking 361 days to alert a woman’s family that she had died, leading them to launch a statewide search for her recovery.
Jessie Peterson, 31, checked herself into Mercy San Juan Medical Center in Carmichael — about 14 miles from Sacramento — on 6 April 2023 after suffering a diabetic episode. She had been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age 10.
On 8 April 2023, she called her mother, Ginger Congi, asking her to pick her up from the hospital. About two hours later, Peterson would be dead. The next day, hospital officials transported her body to a storage facility where she remained until the following year.
After days went by without hearing from Peterson, her mom called the hospital on 11 April 2023 to check on her. A member of staff told her that her daughter had discharged herself against medical advice, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Her family launched a wide search trying to find the woman. Relatives reported her missing to the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office and the California Department of Justice so Peterson would be included on their missing persons website.
The family passed out fliers and called police departments and hospitals looking for her. Peterson’s sister, Angie Rubino, spoke to homeless people in the area where her sister went missing in case anyone knew where she was.
On 12 April 2024, a representative of the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office contacted the family to tell them Peterson had died.
She’d been in a cold storage facility shelf labeled “Red 22 A” for 361 days.
The sheriff’s department said a doctor at the hospital filed a death certificate. State law requires medical professionals to file death certificates 15 hours after a patient passes.
The family is now seeking answers and $25m in damages, including punitive damages for “outrageous and inexcusable negligence” in handling the woman’s death.
The family said that inconsistencies with medical records do not shed light on what happened to Peterson or why it took so long to notify her family of her death.
By the time her family located her body, it had decomposed so much that an autopsy could no longer be performed.
A spokesperson for the hospital told the newspaper in a statement: “We extend our deepest sympathies to the family during this difficult time. We are unable to comment on pending litigation.”
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