Posted on 09/25/2026 11:09:31 PM PDT by Morgana
A couple is suing an Oregon hospital for $10 million after they were allegedly forced to drive home with the body of their dead infant son.
Aleksandr and Nataliya Yeremeyev are accusing Salem Health Hospitals and Clinics of negligence after their infant son, Michael, died in the emergency department in September 2024. Hospital staff then allegedly instructed the Yeremeyevs to drive their son’s body home to Seattle in their personal vehicle.
“Michael Yeremeyev died in Salem Hospital’s emergency room after falling ill during his first family trip, at less than nine months old,” the family’s attorneys said in a statement. “At the moment when his parents, Aleksandr and Nataliya, most needed support, guidance, and assistance in navigating this tragic situation, they got none.”
The Yeremeyevs had traveled to Salem, Oregon, with their 6-month-old son, Michael, for a Christian retreat when his breathing suddenly became shallow and rapid, according to the complaint. Michael was born with Down syndrome and had other significant medical conditions. Aleksandr Yeremeyev took Michael to the emergency department at Salem Hospital. Despite lifesaving efforts by medical staff, Michael died hours later.
After the child passed away, the parents said hospital staff asked them to stay away from his body while they waited for a medical examiner. Eventually, hospital staff told the couple that a medical examiner would not be coming, according to the complaint.
When the parents asked about arrangements for their child’s body and how to arrange for a local funeral home to transport him in a manner that aligned with their religious beliefs and practices, staff allegedly told them it would be too expensive and instructed them to drive the child’s body home in their own car.
Staff also allegedly said they couldn’t print the necessary paperwork for the child’s death because they did not have the correct paper or form. A doctor provided them with a handwritten note stating the child had died at the hospital. When the parents asked how they were to transport the child’s body and expressed concern about his body becoming stiff during the four-hour drive, hospital staff allegedly said they should lay his body flat in the backseat.
The couple then carried their dead child, whose face had turned blue, out of the emergency department and into their car. They laid him in the backseat, as they said they were told to do, and drove home to Seattle, the lawsuit says.
“No grieving family should ever be placed in that position,” their lawyers said. “Salem Health categorically failed this family at the worst moment of their lives, and we intend to hold them accountable.”
When reached for comment, a spokesperson for Salem Health said the company was unable to discuss pending litigation but that their deepest condolences are with the Yeremeyev family.
“Salem Hospital responded in accordance with the family’s wishes and followed both hospital policy and Oregon state law in consultation with the appropriate local authorities, including the medical examiner,” the spokesperson said. “Care with respect is a guiding principle of clinical practice at Salem Hospital and remains central to how we support patients and families during some of life’s most difficult moments. We recognize the profound grief families experience following the loss of a loved one and treat every patient and family with empathy, dignity, and respect.”
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I brought my 4 children everywhere as infants. Sports events for older kids teams, disney, the Poconos. I’d have no hesitation taking a 4 hour trip & my grandsons travel several times a year to Pittsburgh ~6hrs from 3-4 months old. Youngest has been twice & he’s 6 months old. Thirty five - forty years later it worked out fine.
No. My aunt who was dogged to join DAR did all the research in the late fifties and she gave the info to myself and sister. She did it by mail, traveled everywhere, took pics of graves, etc. She found this story in the records of a county in PA. This must have been how they recorded events then, for lack of a newspaper. It was sort of sad, they had thirteen children, which gave names birth dates. There were three young children who died within two days of each other, I would think it probably was some kind of flu.
Regarding not “touching the baby” part of the story, my son in law is a state trooper who has to deal with every unattended or suspicious death in the county. He has had to deal with several dead infants over his time doing this. The hospitals are directed to not allow the babies to be handled because if the death is not natural, they need to collect evidence. I know it sounds horrifying, but thats the legal process.
Now, the second part (not being able to transport) makes no sense. I am wondering who said it was too expensive—the hospital or the parents. The hospital is not going to pick up the tab for post mortem transport in any circumstances. That’s on the family and funeral home.
If the parents are told it’s going to cost them $X to get their child back to Washington and the parents balk…what is the hospital supposed to do?
These stories make hospital staff out to be some sort of monsters. That flies against every person I’ve met working at a hospital system. And hospital administrators are hardly ever hanging out in the Emergency Departments to “make these decisions.” It’s just not how things work.
There has to be another side or two to this story. The hospital won’t talk because of HPPIA, so it wouldn’t come out until a trial—which won’t happen.
I did the same when my group sent a form to fill out about primary care. I suggested that they had treated getting the vax like an sanctified moral imperative, without regard for the individual's existing conditions, family situation, or legitimate questions about the indemnified experimental formula for which there would be no ability to sue if there was a serious vax injury.
I severely criticized their use of the "safe and effective" advice as an insult to one's intelligence, since there was no way of knowing whether it would be either until you took it, ignoring the obvious risks—a catch-22.
I wanted to say more, but still could not risk it. Most of us by now know of at least one person who was sickened or who died from the vaccine, or from the ruinous protocol that kept people from accessing alternative treatment regimens (HCQ, IVM and/or high-dose vit, C), instead slamming them onto ventilators without family or pastoral care in order to get a government payoff.
Because journalists no longer check facts and media sources no longer check facts, nor do they hire copy editors whose job it is to make text understandable and grammatically correct.
I’m not saying it’s easy to find a babysitter. My daughters are grown-39 and 42. My wife and I have been there, we’re retired. I know it’s tough being a parent. No grandkids either. It’s too bad that it happens, but it happens.
“ Moms and Dads couldn’t get a babysitter for just a couple hours?”
Maybe not, I’d cut them some slack.
Maybe try Find a Grave because it is constantly updated.
Exactly.
There is no way, no matter how unreasonable or demanding the parents were, that you do not do your proper paperwork.
I did, too....but this baby spent the first 6 months of its life in a hospital..and we have yet to know how long this baby had been out of the hospital.
Yeah, thanks. The whole thing doesn’t make sense. What actually happened? Suppose these folks might be Jewish by their name, but who knows? Whatever crazy or normal religion they might be, “take the body with you” is just right out, as Monty Python would say.
I looked & reread after your post but I didn’t see the hospitalization referenced. I’m not sure traveling is an added danger. If the baby was hospitalized and was discharged the discharge instructions would have covered any necessary precautions.
It’s a very sad event in any case although suing seems counterintuitive. Cherish the life that was lived, mourn the death. They are probably abreacting because of shock and the time of stress due to medical needs since birth.
People are over thinking this in an effort to excuse the actions of the hospital staff.
But, if they are as reported, there is no excuse.
The body must be secured and removed in a sanitary manner. A dead body is a host for any number of pathogens.
You have to do the after death paperwork.
If they did not there is something seriously wrong and you have to wonder how many other times bodies were tossed out sans any precautions because the staff just did not feel like doing their jobs.
If this is the way they run thing we might have part of an answer as to why we are getting weird outbreaks on the left coast.
Some hospitals specialize in things like tummy tucks and facelifts and only have an Emergency room because its required. If that was the case they should have referred them to another hospital.
Common sense says they shouldn't have traveled away from home.
The death is sad...the life was sad, too.
We know little about the parents.
And have you checked on Find a Grave and Newspapers.com. It's over 50 years and there may be more available now.
I’m sure it was a bunch of DEI nurses and administrators. Good chance illegals too..
Before anyone jumps ugly on Big Med, I think the parents bear some scrutiny.
Thank you. Since my further searches yielded no additional information I tried AI. The infant was 8 months old at death, 2 months out of hospital. His death resulted from a sudden illness and there has been no suggestion that the trip contributed in any way.
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