US hospital told family their daughter had checked out when in fact she’d died

Jessie Peterson’s family spent a year searching for her after they were told that she had checked herself out of a California hospital against medical advice – before they learned that she had been dead all along.

The 31-year-old died in the care of Mercy San Juan medical center in Sacramento in April 2023. The hospital shipped her body to a storage facility and did not inform her mother and sisters. The family only learned her fate the following April after months of trying to find her, according to a civil lawsuit against the hospital.

In the lawsuit, filed earlier this month, the family described the hospital’s conduct as “malicious and outrageous” and accused the facility of negligence, the negligent handling of a corpse and negligent infliction of emotional distress.

“Mercy San Juan hospital failed in its most fundamental duty to notify Jessie’s family of her death,” the lawsuit states. “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.”

Peterson, whom her family described in the lawsuit as “loving and energetic”, had type 1 diabetes. She was experiencing a diabetic episode when she was admitted to Mercy San Juan on 6 April 2023. Her mother, Ginger Congi, stated that Peterson had called her two days later asking for a ride because she would be leaving the hospital, according to the lawsuit.

Congi was later told that Peterson had left the hospital against medical advice, and her medical records indicate she was discharged on 8 April. After her sudden disappearance, the family spent months “relentlessly” searching for her, posting flyers, speaking with unhoused residents in the area, and contacting police and the coroner’s office, according to the lawsuit.

On 12 April 2024, more than a year after Peterson was last seen, the Sacramento county detective’s office informed the family that she had been found dead at Mercy San Juan, the suit states. According to her death certificate, which was completed in April 2024, Peterson died of cardiopulmonary arrest at age 31.

Peterson’s sister went to the coroner’s office seeking her remains, but a worker told her that the office did not have Peterson’s body and directed her to contact the hospital. Mercy San Juan was not responsive to efforts to contact them, according to the lawsuit, and a mortuary eventually informed Congi that Peterson’s body had been found in one of the hospital’s off-site storage facilities.

Her body was so decomposed the family could not obtain her fingerprints or hold an open casket funeral, and an autopsy that could have indicated whether there had been medical malpractice associated with her death was “rendered impossible”, according to the lawsuit.

“Defendants’ failure to issue a timely certificate of death, failure to notify Jessie’s next of kin, failure to allow an autopsy, and mishandling of Jessie’s remains [was] negligent, careless, and heartless,” the lawsuit states. “Defendants violated their own promise of dignity and respect for the people in their care. Defendants’ conduct is so egregious and malicious to shock the conscious and punitive damages should be awarded.”

The family is seeking more than $5m in damages, as well as “five times the jury’s award of actual damages to punish defendants for their outrageous and inexcusable negligence” and attorneys’ fees.

Dignity Health, which operates Mercy San Juan, said in a statement: “We extend our deepest sympathies to the family during this difficult time. We are unable to comment on pending litigation.”