USA: 31yo Woman Went To Hospital After Diabetic Episode. She Died While In Hospital Care. Hospital Lied To Family She Left On Her Own. Body Was In Cold Storage. Detective Found Her 1 Year Later.

UPDATE 8/26/24 at 9:00pm: Added video below

with more details surrounding this case.

Law&Crime Network published August 26, 2024: ‘Missing’ Dead Woman Found in Morgue One Year After Hospital Said She Checked Out. Jessie Marie Peterson, 31, was admitted to Mercy San Juan Medical Center outside Sacramento, California in April 2023. According to a newly filed $25 million lawsuit, family members were told Jessie checked herself out against medical advice. In reality, she had died at the hospital and her body was placed in cold storage. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber sits down with personal injury attorney Alea Roberts to discuss the lawsuit.

***ORIGINAL POST***

🚨NO WHITE SUPREMACISTS INVOLVED🚨

FOX40 News published August 22, 2024: 'This should've never happened': Family files lawsuit against hospital for allegedly misplacing body. A new lawsuit filed by the family of Jessie Patterson claims Mercy San Juan Hospital did not tell the family about Jessie’s death for over a year. According to her death certificate Jessie Paterson died of cardiopulmonary arrest on April 8, 2023 at 31 years old; however it wasn't until April 12, 2024, that her mother Ginger Conti was notified that Jessie was found dead.

San Francisco Gate

California hospital lost woman's body, told family she left, lawsuit says

written by Andrew Chamings, Editor-at-Large

Wednesday August 21, 2024

A California hospital failed to inform a mother that her 31-year-old daughter died in the hospital’s care and misplaced her body for a year as family members desperately tried to find her, according to a lawsuit filed in Sacramento County.

The mother and two sisters of Jessie Peterson, who died in April 2023 at Mercy San Juan Medical Center in Carmichael, a suburb of Sacramento, said that they were told Jessie left of her own accord when, in actuality, her body had been forgotten in cold storage.

Born in 1991, Peterson grew up in Sacramento and was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at the age of 10.

On April 6, 2023, Peterson had a diabetic episode and was admitted to Mercy San Juan Medical Center, a hospital she had previously visited for diabetes-related complications. Two days later, at about 3 p.m., Jessie called her mother, Ginger Congi, from the hospital asking to be picked up, the lawsuit states.

Less than two hours later, Peterson died at the hospital due to a cardiac arrest while suffering from diabetic ketoacidosis, her death certificate shows.

“Jessie’s family was not notified of Jessie’s passing, despite extensive previous contact between the hospital and Jessie’s family,” the lawsuit alleges. Instead, on April 11, Congi was allegedly told by hospital staff that Jessie had left “against medical advice.” Meanwhile, “Jessie was placed on Shelf Number Red 22 A and forgotten,” the lawsuit says.

In the following months, Jessie’s mom and sisters searched high and low for her. They spoke to friends, posted flyers, asked around homeless communities and filed a missing persons report with the county and the state Department of Justice.

On April 12, 2024, more than a year after Jessie died, a detective allegedly called Congi informing her that her daughter was found dead in a warehouse morgue at Mercy San Juan Medical Center. A few days later, Jessie’s body was recovered by the family, but her remains were “so decomposed that an open casket funeral was not feasible,” the lawsuit states. The state of the body also meant that no autopsy could be carried out to prove or disprove medical malpractice, the family said.

“While a patient that doesn’t survive may be just another lifeless body to Mercy San Juan hospital, Jessie was a family member, daughter, and sister, all of whom deserved the dignity and respect Mercy San Juan grossly failed to provide,” the lawsuit says. “Even to this day, the hospital has not apologized to Jessie’s family members.”

The civil suit, brought against hospital operators Dignity Health, accuses the defendants of negligent handling of a corpse, infliction of emotional distress and a violation of California health and safety codes. In the complaint, Jessie’s family describe her as a “loving and energetic” person who played on the Roseville High School water polo and dance teams.

“Dignity claims to have ‘changed their name to Dignity Health to better describe what we stand for.’ They certainly didn’t convey dignity to Jessie or her family,” the plaintiffs’ attorney Marc Greenberg told SFGATE over email. “We hope to be the catalyst for that change.”

“We extend our deepest sympathies to the family during this difficult time,” a Dignity Health spokesperson told SFGATE in a statement on Wednesday. “We are unable to comment on pending litigation.”