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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.”
