Family spent a year looking for daughter after hospital said she checked herself out — but she was dead the whole time: lawsuit

NY Post ^ | 08/22/2024 | Emily Crane

[DFG]

A panicked family spent a year looking for their daughter after a California hospital told them she had checked herself out against medical advice — just to finally find out she’d been decomposing in its morgue the entire time, a new lawsuit alleges.

Jessie Peterson, 31, died at the Mercy San Juan Medical Center, just outside Sacramento, in April last year after admitting herself for treatment for her long-diagnosed Type 1 diabetes, according to a negligence suit filed this month.

Her grief-stricken relatives, however, claim the hospital failed to inform them about her death and instead quickly shipped her body off to its storage facility, where she would lie forgotten in a freezer for months.

They only recently learned of Peterson’s fate after spending a painstaking year reporting her missing to cops, posting flyers, calling friends and canvassing the area she frequented in a bid to track her down, court papers charge.

“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,” the lawsuit states.

By that time, Peterson’s body was “so decomposed that an open casket funeral was not feasible” and her fingerprints couldn’t be obtained for any keepsakes, the lawsuit says.

Her remains were also “so discolored that her tattoos could not be identified,” stated the lawsuit seeking $5 million in damages.

According to the suit, Peterson had checked herself into the hospital on April 6, 2023, after experiencing a flare-up tied to her diabetes — a condition she was diagnosed with at 10 and was regularly treated for.

[LouAvul]

Unlock a cell phone?

[verum ago]

Notice that an autopsy can no longer be done. I suspect the hospital killed her through negligence and then shipped the body off and then clammed up.

Given the facts stated in the article, I suspect it's just a particularly horrible and negligent paperwork/administrative eff up, not medical malpractice.

Per her mother, she called for a ride to leave the hospital on April 8th.

Per the hospital paperwork, she checked herself out on the 8th against medical advice.

Pure speculation of course, but I'm guessing she checked herself out of the hospital, called her mom, then dropped while still on the hospital grounds. ER staff might not've bothered to treat her as a new patient to be entered into the system if she was still wearing an admissions bracelet. Everything from their is just administrative screwups, albeit particularly horrible and inexcusable.

Checking herself out of the hospital against medical advice sounds more like this poor woman accidentally killed herself. All the following trouble is of course on the hospital though.

[Indy Pendance]

When we were picking out an urn for my dad, they asked us if we wanted earrings, necklaces, etc. with a little vile of his ashes for a keepsake. Uh, no.

[BradyLS]

Capture the prints to put with photos or baby shoes or other mementos of the deceased? Just a guess.

[BradyLS]

Wow! That’s thinkin’!

[nickcarraway]

Doesn’t that mean they lied to cops? It says her family reported her missing, and I assume any competent law enforcement would start their investigation asking the hospital. What happened. The police didn’t find out what happened to her until a year later, so I see no other option but the hospital lied to the police.

[hanamizu]

I guess it’s not that much stranger than a lock of someone’s hair as a keepsake.

---

That was very big in Victorian and earlier times. Sometimes jewelry was crafted as a keepsake, memorial.

[nickcarraway]

You don’t have enough experience around doctors. Plenty of doctors who are top students make mistakes. Ever heard of hubris? Arrogant doctors who think they are God make mistakes. I’ve seen it many times.

[nickcarraway]

You think all mistakes are made by DEI hires? So, according to your logic, Biden was a great president.

[vivenne]

100% Treacherous places.

[vivenne]

Add a zero or two and justice would be better sought.

[jagusafr]

Just wrote a will for a client that requested just that - followed by cremation and burying half the ashes with her dead hubby and giving the other half to her daughter. Whatever...

[vivenne]

That’s what I think as well. Hiding manslaughter.

[vivenne]

I dont believe it. If she cared enough about her own health to check herself into a hospital, she likely would not have ignored medical advice and tried to leave. Doesn’t make sense.

[ronniesgal]

that makes sense but kinda creepy to me.

[vivenne]

Or the police didn’t follow through.

[RoseofTexas]

A year ago? …holy tomatoes! That’s what happens when you hire DEI immigrant nurses and Doctors! California is notorious for hiring legal invaders immigrants and unqualified doctors. Somebody dropped the ball …somebody must’ve given her too much of something or not enough or she just fell through the cracks of neglect during somebody’s rounds! Choose your doctors and hospitals wisely! Always ask around for names of qualified good doctors..if possible ask an ER or OR nurses! Believe me they know who the good and the bad doctors are.

[CFW]

I guess the hospital was so overwhelmed with Covid patients, their daughter was just overlooked.

Or, it could have been they were busy with coordinating their Tik-tok dances, recording selfies, and doing their nails that they failed to give her medication in a timely manner and she died as a result. In the chaos of shift changes, and DEI hires not doing their job, no one took the responsibility of notifying her family or even her treating physician and she was just dumped in the morgue and forgotten.

[4yearlurker]

Yep. There are bad carpenters,mechanics,plumbers,etc.....and doctors.

[Opinionated Blowhard]