Warning: This article contains details that some readers may find distressing.
A family who was told that their daughter had checked herself out of a hospital before vanishing was shocked to discover her dead body had actually been in storage for a year.
Jessie Peterson’s family had spent the better part of a year searching for their loved one after she had reportedly checked out of the Mercy San Juan Medical Center in Sacramento in April 2023.
However, they were left horrified after receiving a call from a representative of the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office and finding out that Jessie had actually passed away.
The family is now in the process of filing a civil lawsuit against the facility, hoping to get some justice in the matter.
In the legal documents filed earlier this month, the family described the hospital’s conduct as “malicious and outrageous” and accused the facility of the negligent handling of a corpse as well as the 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 as per a report by the Guardian. “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.”
It was reported that Jessie had gone to hospital as she was suffering from issues with her Type 1 diabetes and her mother, Ginger Congi, stated that she had received a call from her daughter asking for a ride home because she would be checking out soon.
Ginger didn’t receive a call from Jessie, though she was told by staff at the facility that her daughter had left the premises against medical advice.
The family spent the next few months looking for Jessie, altering local media outlets and even handing out flyers in the hopes that someone would have seen her.
Little did they know that she had tragically passed away and her body had been sent to an off-site storage facility by members of the team at the hospital where she had been sitting on a shelf labeled ‘Red 22 A’ for a year.
By the time her family located her body, it had decomposed so much that an official autopsy could no longer be performed.
However, according to her death certificate, which was finally completed a year after her actual death, Peterson died of cardiopulmonary arrest at the age of 31.
In response to the lawsuit, the Mercy San Juan Medical Center stated that they are aware that this situation is a difficult one for the family.
“We extend our deepest sympathies to the family during this difficult time. We are unable to comment on pending litigation,” they said, as per the Independent.
