Woman’s Body Found in Storage 1 Year After Hospital Said She’d Gone: Lawsuit

Mysterious Circumstances Surround Woman’s Death

In a shocking discovery, the body of a woman was found within a medical center’s off-site cold storage facility about a year after the hospital reportedly stated that she had left. The woman, identified as Jesse Marie Peterson, was a patient at Mercy San Juan Medical Center in California. Her family members have filed a lawsuit against the hospital, accusing them of negligence.

Peterson’s Hospital Stay

Peterson, who had been dealing with Type 1 diabetes since she was 10 years old, was admitted to the hospital due to a diabetic episode on April 6, 2023. The 31-year-old woman had previously sought diabetic treatment at the same facility. Two days after her admission, Peterson called her mother, Ginger Congi, asked her to pick her up. A couple of hours later, Peterson suffered a cardiac arrest and died due to diabetic ketoacidosis, as stated in the death certificate obtained much later by the family.

A Disconcerting Discovery: Body Found Nearly a Year Later

A few days after her supposed discharge, Congi called the hospital, only to be informed that Peterson had left “against medical advice” and that there was no patient under her name. Following a year-long search for their missing daughter, the family was made aware of Peterson’s death on April 12, 2024, by a Sacramento County Sheriff’s detective.

Further information revealed that Peterson’s remains were transferred to an off-site cold storage facility of the medical center shortly after her demise. Quite shockingly, Peterson’s death certificate was issued on April 5, 2024, nearly a year after her death. The lawsuit alleges that the death certificate, by California law, should have been issued within 15 hours of her death.

The Legal Battle

The Peterson family’s attorney, Marc Greenberg, states that the medical center was obliged by the law to issue the death certificate and inform the next kin within a set time period of Peterson’s death – which they failed to do. The family now seeks damages exceeding $5 million and a jury trial against the medical center.

The healthcare provider, Mercy San Juan Medical Center, has expressed their condolences to the family but refrained from commenting on the pending litigation. The incident raises significant concerns around the medical center’s protocol handling patient deaths and notifying kin, resulting in an agonizing period of uncertainty for Peterson’s family.

The tragic incident provides a stark reminder of the importance of proper hospital protocols and the devastating impact of negligence.