SACRAMENTO — Jessie Peterson suffered a diabetic attack and was admitted to a hospital in Sacramento, California, on April 6, 2023. Two days later, the 31-year-old called her mother and asked to be picked up from the hospital.
But that call would be the last time her family heard from her.
Three days later, Peterson’s mother called the hospital only to be told there was no one there by that name. She said when she persisted, she was told Jessie had left the hospital against the advice of her doctors.
Peterson’s family began a tireless search, filing missing persons reports, contacting the public, putting up flyers with her photo throughout the city, and even getting her name added to the U.S. Department of Justice’s missing persons website.
More than a year after her disappearance, they finally received the dreaded news in a call from a detective at the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office: a death certificate had been issued for Jessie.
Marc Greenberg via CNN Newsource
One of Jessie’s sisters went to the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office, but was told her remains were not there and was told to contact the hospital instead.
Peterson’s mother, Ginger Congi, reached someone at the hospital who told her they would call back. There was no immediate call, but a mortician later contacted Congi and said Jessie’s body had been found in one of the cold storage facilities outside the hospital grounds.
Her body was too decomposed for an autopsy.
As it turned out, Jessie had died about two hours after her last call to her mother.
Jessie’s family sues hospital for negligence
Jessie’s fate was detailed in a $25 million lawsuit filed against the hospital.
In the lawsuit, her family claimed that the hospital never informed them of her death and misplaced her body.
The lawsuit accuses Dignity Health/Mercy San Juan Medical Center of negligence, negligent handling of a corpse, negligent infliction of emotional distress, and violation of the California Health and Safety Code.
“We extend our deepest condolences to the family during this difficult time,” Dignity Health said in a statement. “We cannot comment on ongoing litigation.”
Jessie Peterson was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 10, family attorney Marc Greenberg told CNN. Over the course of her life, she was hospitalized about 20 times for complications of the disease, including twice in the months before her death and one final time on April 6, 2023, Greenberg said. At times, she struggled with addiction and homelessness, he said.
The day after her death, Peterson’s body was taken to a nearby morgue.
“On April 9, 2023, Mercy San Juan Hospital transferred Jessie’s body to cold storage. Jessie was placed on shelf number Red 22 A and forgotten,” the complaint states.
“Jessie’s family was not notified of Jessie’s death, despite extensive prior contact between the hospital and Jessie’s family and Ginger being listed as Jessie’s next of kin,” the lawsuit states.
On April 4, 2024, approximately 362 days after her death, a death certificate was issued for Jessie Peterson, signed by a doctor at Mercy San Juan Medical Center who is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
A little more than a week later, a detective with the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office notified the family that Peterson had died.
It is unclear what caused the delay in issuing Peterson’s death certificate. The California Health and Safety Code requires the attending physician to complete the information within 15 hours of the patient’s death.
Because of the decomposition that occurred over the year that Peterson’s body was in storage, an open-casket burial and not even an autopsy to determine possible medical malpractice were possible, the lawsuit says.
“Because Jessie’s death was not reported to the family for a year, an autopsy to determine whether medical malpractice played a role in her death was not possible,” the file states.
“When they think of her now, they think of her on a shelf in a body bag and not what she was like,” Greenberg said of Peterson’s family. “They don’t really know what the hell really happened.”
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