‘Family Relentlessly Inquired’: California Woman’s Body Found In a Hospital Freezer Storage Nearly a Year After Staff Said She Checked Herself Out, Lawsuit Says

Bombshell allegations surfaced against a California hospital after a 31-year-old woman thought to be alive and “missing” turned up in an off-site cold storage facility. Jessie Peterson’s forgotten remains had been sitting on shelf number “Red 22 A” for 361 days, and the family claims they were never notified of her death.

Now, Mercy San Juan Medical Center in Carmichael is facing a multi-million-dollar negligence lawsuit brought by Peterson’s family.

On April 6, 2023, Peterson, who had been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was 10, checked herself into the Sacramento-area hospital after a diabetic episode. Two days later, she was pronounced dead, and her body was shuttled to cold storage, where it remained for the next year, unbeknownst to anyone.

About two hours before she died, Peterson had a phone conversation with her mother, Ginger Congi, asking to be picked up from the hospital, according to the lawsuit.

After Congi was unable to reach her daughter again, she contacted the hospital directly on April 11, 2023, and received surprising news. A staff member said Peterson had checked herself out against medical advice, the lawsuit claims.

After days passed with no sign of Peterson, her family launched a desperate widespread search for their missing loved one, who her mom described as “bubbly” and “energetic” to NBC News .

The family alerted the local sheriff’s office and called other hospitals in the area. They cast an even wider net by adding her name to the California Department of Justice’s missing persons website. Peterson’s sister, Angie Rubino, posted fliers and even spoke with the area’s homeless population seeking leads, but the family turned up empty-handed.

The discovery of her body was all due to a random fluke. According to the lawsuit, a doctor at Mercy San Juan Medical Center happened to file a death certificate — 361 days late — which triggered an alert at the Sheriff’s Office.

Per California law , a doctor must file a death certificate within 15 hours of a death and contact the next of kin.

On April 12, 2024, Peterson’s family was finally informed by a sheriff’s detective that their daughter was dead. The official cause of death from the hospital was cardiopulmonary arrest, but her body was too decomposed for an autopsy to confirm, read the complaint.

The family, however, still didn’t know the full story about Peterson’s remains until Congi spoke with East Lawn Mortuary on April 15 and was told that her daughter’s body had been discovered in an off-site storage facility. She still had her ID bracelet on her wrist, stated the lawsuit.

Their attorney, Marc R. Greenberg, raised serious concerns about the hospital in the complaint.

“Mercy San Juan hospital failed in its most fundamental duty to notify Jessie’s family of her death,” Greenberg noted. “Mercy San Juan stored Jessie in an off-site warehouse and she was left to decompose for nearly a year while her family relentlessly inquired about her whereabouts.”

Greenberg also pointed to alleged mistakes in Peterson’s medical records, reported the Los Angeles Times. For instance, a chest X-ray of Peterson was supposedly done on May 31, 2023, more than a month after she died.

“She was dead and in cold storage by then, so what did [they] compare it to?” Greenberg told the outlet. Another record states that Peterson pulled out her own intravenous line at one point, but two other records state a nurse disconnected it, Greenberg said.

Mercy San Juan Medical Center has come under fire in the past for negligent care something also noted by Greenberg.

“This is not the first time Mercy San Juan hospital has misplaced a patient that died in their care,” he said.

In April 2022, a 61-year-old veteran went to the emergency room after a bad fall and was placed on a cement sidewalk outside of the hospital for more than an hour. No backboard was provided, and he was too hurt to sit in a wheelchair, ABC10 reported.

As for Peterson’s family, Congi addressed the hospital directly in an interview with NBC: “I have absolutely no faith in your hospital and the care for patients. You’ve lost that from me,” said the grieving mother, shaking her head in disbelief and frustration.

‘Family Relentlessly Inquired’: California Woman’s Body Found In a Hospital Freezer Storage Nearly a Year After Staff Said She Checked Herself Out, Lawsuit Says