California hospital didn't tell woman's family she died for a year, lawsuit says

A California hospital told her family she left. Her body was found in cold storage months later, suit says

Aug. 21, 2024 3 AM PT

For nearly a year after she seemingly vanished from a Sacramento-area hospital, Jessie Peterson’s family mounted a frantic search — distributing posters of her and calling any hospital and police department they could think of, but to no avail.

But the 31-year-old wasn’t missing. She had never left the hospital alive.

In a lawsuit filed this month, the Peterson family alleges that staff at Mercy San Juan Medical Center in Carmichael never notified them that Jessie had died. Instead, their attorney told The Times, they were led to believe she had checked out of the hospital — against medical advice — in April 2023.

“You don’t just get to make these kinds of mistakes and think it’s OK,” attorney Marc R. Greenberg said.

A spokesperson for Mercy San Juan, which is operated by Dignity Health and owned by CommonSpirit Health, declined to comment on the lawsuit.

“We extend our deepest sympathies to the family during this difficult time,” a spokesperson wrote in an email. “We are unable to comment on pending litigation.”

The lawsuit seeks $25 million in damages, including punitive damages for “outrageous and inexcusable negligence.”

Jessie Peterson, right, with her sister, Angie Rubino.

According to the lawsuit, Peterson, who had been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when she was 10, checked into Mercy San Juan Medical Center on April 6, 2023, after she suffered a diabetic episode.

Two days later, Peterson called her mother, Ginger Congi, and asked her to pick her up from the hospital.

Roughly two hours after that call, according to the suit, Peterson was pronounced dead at the hospital. The following day, the lawsuit says, her body was taken to a cold-storage facility and placed on shelf “Red 22 A,” and remained there for 361 days.

After not hearing back from her daughter, Congi called the hospital on April 11, 2023, but was told she had checked herself out.

As days went by with no sign of or word from Peterson, her family began a search that ultimately lasted months, Greenberg said. The family reported her missing to the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office, and contacted the California Department of Justice so that Peterson would be included on their missing persons website.

Angie Rubino, Peterson’s sister, posted fliers and reached out to homeless people in the area to see whether anyone might have any information.

It wasn’t until April 12, 2024, that Peterson’s family was contacted by the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office and told that she was dead.

But Peterson’s body had not been found. Rather, sheriff’s officials were notified because a doctor at Mercy San Juan Medical Center had filed a death certificate.

California law requires physicians to fill out a death certificate within 15 hours of a death. Peterson’s wasn’t filed for 361 days, according to the lawsuit.

According to medical records reviewed by The Times, after the death certificate was issued, Rubino called the doctor who had cared for Peterson the day she died.

“It seems like family is interested in coming to the hospital and have specific questions regarding what may have taken this long for hospital to notify the death of their family member as it has been about a year,” Dr. Nadeem Mukhtar wrote in a note following the call. “I did not attempt to answer this question, however encouraged [them] to reach out to the hospital and see if an in-person meeting can be scheduled.”

Mukhtar did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

According to Greenberg, family members also have found inconsistencies in the medical documents they’ve received, raising further questions about Peterson’s death.

One record indicates that Peterson pulled out her own intravenous line at one point, but two others state a nurse disconnected it, Greenberg said.

Another record states that a chest X-ray was done when she checked in on April 6, 2023, and was compared with a subsequent scan done on May 31, 2023.

“She was dead and in cold storage by then, so what did [they] compare it to?” Greenberg said.

By the time Peterson’s family found her body, he said, it had decomposed too much for an autopsy that may have yielded answers about the kind of care she received.

“We’ll never really know what happened to her,” Greenberg said.