CA Hospital Told Family Their Daughter Had Checked Out, When In Fact She'd Died; Body In Storage

[appalachiablue]

- US hospital told family their daughter had checked out when in fact she’d died. - Family of Jessie Peterson, 31, spent a year searching for her before learning hospital had shipped body to storage facility. The Guardian, Aug. 21, 2024.
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Jessie Peterson’s family spent a year searching for her after they were told that she had checked herself out of a California hospital against medical advice – before they learned that she had been dead all along. The 31-year-old died in the care of Mercy San Juan medical center in Sacramento in April 2023. The hospital shipped her body to a storage facility and did not inform her mother and sisters.

The family only learned her fate the following April after months of trying to find her, according to a civil lawsuit against the hospital. In the lawsuit, filed earlier this month, the family described the hospital’s conduct as “malicious and outrageous” and accused the facility of negligence, the negligent handling of a corpse and negligent infliction of emotional distress.

Mercy San Juan hospital failed in its most fundamental duty to notify Jessie’s family of her death,” the lawsuit states. “Mercy San Juan stored Jessie in an off-site warehouse morgue and she was left to decompose for nearly a year while her family relentlessly inquired about her whereabouts.” Peterson, whom her family described in the lawsuit as “loving and energetic”, had type 1 diabetes.

She was experiencing a diabetic episode when she was admitted to Mercy San Juan on 6 April 2023.

Her mother, Ginger Congi, stated that Peterson had called her two days later asking for a ride because she would be leaving the hospital, according to the lawsuit. Congi was later told that Peterson had left the hospital against medical advice, and her medical records indicate she was discharged on 8 April. After her sudden disappearance, the family spent months “relentlessly” searching for her, posting flyers, speaking with unhoused residents in the area, and contacting police and the coroner’s office, according to the lawsuit...

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/aug/21/sacramento-hospital-patient-death-checked-out

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. I hope they throw the book at that hospital. Incredibly callous and disrespectful behavior from that institution.

Mercy San Juan medical center hardly deserves the name 'mercy.'

No ethics, no caring, no honesty!

[appalachiablue]

2. Same here, what a horror, monsters there. Shocking treatment. Tx for posting.

[central scrutinizer]

3. The receptionist only has a screen to look at

No context, no details

I rushed to a hospital halfway across the country when my stepfather said my mother was in bad shape. Due to flight problems I got there several hours after I expected. This was 1990, before everyone had a cell phone. When I went to the front desk of the hospital, I was told my mother had been discharged. She had died a few hours before but the front desk had no other information.

[appalachiablue]

4. That's very strange, sorry about your experience. The front desk, and other

staff should be able to tell relatives the health status of patients beyond bureaucratic record keeping terms like 'discharged.'

[dalton99a]

5. "DIGNITY Health, which operates MERCY San Juan..."

[appalachiablue]

7. Check..some 'dignity.'

[Delphinus]

6. I simply

cannot imagine. My heart hurts for them.