The family of a California woman who died last year filed a lawsuit claiming the hospital failed to disclose her death for nearly a year.
Jessie Peterson’s family claimed in the lawsuit that Mercy San Juan Medical Center failed to inform them of her April 2023 death, leading them to believe she was alive and missing for nearly a year, NBC News reports.
Peterson, 31, had been admitted to the hospital in Carmichael, but the hospital allegedly told her mother that she had been discharged against medical advice instead of notifying the family of her death.
Believing Peterson was missing, the family filed a report with the county sheriff’s department, posted notices around town, and interviewed local homeless individuals, hoping someone had seen her.
“The family searched and searched for Jessie. It was not until April 12, 2024, that the Sacramento County Detective’s Office notified Jessie’s family that she was found deceased at Mercy San Juan hospital,” the lawsuit state.
The New York Times reports that Peterson’s mother, Ginger Congi,spoke to Peterson for the last time on April 8, 2023, when Peterson called and asked to be picked up from the hospital.
Peterson had been admitted two days earlier due to a diabetic episode. According to the lawsuit, she was pronounced dead less than two hours after calling her mother, and her body was transferred to a cold storage facility the following day.
On April 11, 2023, Congi, who was listed as Peterson’s next of kin, contacted the hospital and asked for her daughter’s room. The hospital informed her that there was no patient by that name before later claiming Peterson checked herself out, the lawsuit stated.
Peterson’s family reached out to friends and loved ones and began distributing flyers in an attempt to locate her. They spoke with homeless people in the area and contacted police, the lawsuit said, and filed a missing person’s report with the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office.
They also posted her information on the Department of Justice’s missing persons website.
Congi contacted the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office but couldn’t locate Peterson. When they finally learned of her death, Peterson’s body was “so decomposed that an open casket funeral was not feasible,” the lawsuit said.
Further, the lawsuit stated that due to the body’s condition, it was impossible to determine whether medical malpractice had taken place.
“Mercy San Juan hospital advertises that ‘at our care facilities, we take pride in treating all people with dignity and respect.’ In this case, there was no dignity and no respect,” the family’s lawyer, Marc Greenberg, said.
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[Feature Photo: Jessie Peterson/Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office]
