Family members of a woman who spent time in a California hospital say they desperately searched for her for a year after the hospital claimed she had checked herself out. In fact, the patient had died at the hospital, which failed to inform her family, according to a civil lawsuit filed this month against Sacramento's Mercy San Juan Medical Center. It claims 31-year-old Jessie Peterson died April 8, 2023, and her body was shipped to an off-site morgue the following day. Then "she was left to decompose for nearly a year while her family relentlessly inquired about her whereabouts," the suit reads, per the Guardian.
Peterson had type 1 diabetes and was experiencing a diabetic episode when she was admitted on April 6, 2023. Peterson's mother, Ginger Congi, says her daughter contacted her two days later, saying she was leaving the hospital and needed a ride. Then Peterson seemingly disappeared. The hospital allegedly told family she had checked herself out against medical advice. Then on April 12 of this year, the family says they were informed Peterson had been dead the whole time. The suit claims she died in the hospital about two hours after calling her mother, per the Washington Post.
The hospital, which declined to comment, "failed in its most fundamental duty to notify Jessie's family of her death," the suit reads. It claims the hospital also failed to issue a death certificate within 15 hours of death as required under California law. Peterson's death certificate—dated April 4, 2024—lists her cause of death as cardiopulmonary arrest, but family members say they can't confirm that because Peterson's body was too decomposed for an autopsy. They're asking for more than $5 million in damages, plus "five times the jury's award of actual damages to punish defendants for their outrageous and inexcusable negligence." (More lawsuit stories.)
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