A family spent a whole year searching for their dead relative who they had been told had checked themselves out — alive — of a hospital in the US. After months of distressing research, the family discovered that their beloved one had been deceased the entire time. The grim discovery has led to a damning lawsuit against the responsible establishment.

Jessie Peterson died at the age of 31 in the care of Mercy San Juan Medical Center in Sacramento, California, USA, in April 2023. Nevertheless, her family spent a year searching for her after they were told that she had checked herself out.

In reality, the hospital had shipped her body to a storage facility and did not inform her mother and sisters, The Guardian reported on Wednesday (August 21).

Moreover, Peterson’s family reportedly only learned her fate the following April after months of trying to find her, according to a civil lawsuit against the hospital and Dignity Health, which operates Mercy San Juan.

Jessie Peterson’s family spent a whole year searching for her after they were told that she had checked herself out of a hospital 

Image credits: AngiesFamilyVideos

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, The Guardian reported.

The dispute further argued: “Mercy San Juan Hospital failed in its most fundamental duty to notify Peterson’s family of her death.

“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.”

Image credits: AngiesFamilyVideos

Peterson lived with type 1 diabetes. According to the Mayo Clinic, it is a chronic autoimmune disease that occurs when the body’s immune system destroys the insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. 

Insulin is a hormone that regulates blood sugar levels and helps cells use blood sugar for energy. When the body can’t produce insulin, glucose can’t be moved from the bloodstream into cells, causing blood sugar levels to rise.

Before being admitted to Mercy San Juan on April 6, 2023, Peterson was experiencing a diabetic episode. In most cases of diabetic emergencies, a person’s blood sugar levels become too low, as per the British Red Cross. 

After months of distressing research, her family discovered that she had been deceased the entire time

Image credits: ABC10

This is called hypoglycemia. It can happen when the person has missed a meal or exercised too much. If left untreated, a diabetic emergency can become very serious.

According to her mother, Ginger Congi, it was not uncommon for her daughter to receive medical treatment for Type 1 diabetes. She was diagnosed when she was a teenager, Congi said, and although it was difficult, Peterson “just carried on,” CBS News reported on Tuesday (August 20). 

Congi reportedly stated that her daughter had called her two days later asking for a ride because she would be leaving the hospital, according to the lawsuit.

Image credits: CBS News Sacramento

The grieving mother said her daughter wanted to leave the hospital. That phone call would be the last time the two spoke. 

Congi was later told that Peterson had left the hospital against medical advice, and her medical records indicated she was discharged on April 8, 2023, The Guardian reported. 

The truth, Congi said she learned a year later, is that her daughter died two hours after their phone call in April 2023, CBS News reported.

The grim discovery has led to a damning lawsuit against Mercy San Juan Medical Center in Sacramento, where she died

Image credits: AngiesFamilyVideos

After her sudden disappearance, the family reportedly 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.

“We didn’t lose hope,” Congi told CBS News. “At that point in time, we thought, you know, maybe she’s just, she’s just gone silent for a little while. Then, you know, she would resurface again.”

On April 12, 2024, the Sacramento County detective’s office reportedly informed the family that Peterson had been found dead at Mercy San Juan, the suit stated. 

Image credits: AngiesFamilyVideos

According to her death certificate, which was completed in April of this year, Peterson died of cardiopulmonary arrest. Cardiopulmonary arrest is the cessation of adequate heart function and respiration, and it results in death without reversal, the National Institute of Health explains.

Often, this condition is found in patients with coronary artery disease.

After her sudden disappearance, the family reportedly spent months “relentlessly” searching for Peterson

Image credits: CBS News Sacramento

Peterson’s sister reportedly went to the coroner’s office seeking her remains, but a worker told her that the office did not have her 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 her daughter’s body had been found in one of the hospital’s off-site storage facilities, The Guardian reported.

Peterson’s body was reportedly so decomposed the family could not obtain her fingerprints or hold an open-casket funeral.

Image credits: CBS News Sacramento

Additionally, an autopsy that could have indicated whether there had been medical malpractice associated with her death was “rendered impossible,” according to the lawsuit.

The legal claim noted: “Defendants’ failure to issue a timely certificate of death, failure to notify Peterson’s next of kin, failure to allow an autopsy, and mishandling of Peterson’s remains [was] negligent, careless, and heartless.

“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.”

Before being admitted to Mercy San Juan on April 6, 2023, Peterson was experiencing a diabetic episode

Image credits: AngiesFamilyVideos

Congi told CBS News: “They just totally discarded her. It wasn’t even 24 hours after she died that they shipped her off to some storage facility and in a freezer up on a shelf, you know, and just didn’t have a care in the world for her or for us.”

Peterson’s family is seeking more than $5 million 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, The Guardian reported.

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

“Someone deserves to go to jail for this,” a reader commented

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