A California hospital that treated a woman last April led her family to believe she had been missing for more than a year, when in fact she died just days after being admitted, a new lawsuit claims.
The mother and two sisters of Jessie Peterson, who had Type 1 diabetes, said hospital staff told them she left “against medical advice” after receiving treatment for a diabetic episode.
Peterson, 31, was a regular at Mercy San Juan Medical Center in Carmichael for diabetes-related complications, according to his family.
Two days after she was admitted on April 6, 2023, Peterson called her mother, Ginger Congi, to come pick her up, according to the lawsuit.
But a death certificate obtained by Gate of Saint Francis revealed that he died of cardiac arrest while suffering from diabetic ketoacidosis less than two hours after calling his mother.
The lawsuit, which seeks a $15 million judgment against the hospital operators Dignity Health, also includes the startling claim that Peterson’s body was “forgotten” in the morgue for more than a year.
Jessie Peterson, pictured, died in a hospital in April 2023 after receiving treatment for her type 1 diabetes. For more than a year, her family believed she was missing and spared no effort to search for her.
Peterson’s family has filed a negligence lawsuit against Dignity Health hospital operators, after hospital staff allegedly told them Peterson had left on her own. Here’s what led them to believe she was still there
“Jessie’s family was not notified of her passing, even though the hospital and Jessie’s family had been in contact for a long time,” the lawsuit states. “Jessie was placed on red shelf number 22 A and forgotten.”
Since the family believed Peterson had simply disappeared, they spent months doing everything they could to locate her.
They talked to friends, neighbors, handed out flyers and filed a missing person report with the county and the California Department of Justice.
Peterson’s sister, Angie Rubino, even spoke to homeless people in the area around the hospital to see if they could shed any light on his search. The Independent reported.
Everything changed on April 12, 2024, more than a year after Peterson was supposedly missing.
That’s when a representative from the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office allegedly called Congi and informed her that her daughter was found dead in the hospital’s cold storage area.
“We are still very sad and we still have no answers,” Congi said. The New York Times“It’s hard not to be angry.”
Ginger Congi, pictured, decided to file a lawsuit against the hospital after it refused to provide her with answers.
Peterson, center, is pictured with her two sisters, who also helped search for her in the months after she disappeared.
The hospital where Peterson, pictured, died has reportedly not apologized to the family.
Congi still does not know whether her daughter had been discharged when she died or if she was still receiving treatment.
The family’s attorney, Marc Greenberg, also provided The Times with a copy of Peterson’s death certificate, which was signed on April 4, 2024. It said he died on April 8, 2023.
It remains unclear why it took nearly a year for the hospital to sign off on his death certificate, which under California law must be issued within 15 hours.
Peterson’s body was released to his family a few days after the gruesome discovery, but his remains were “so badly decomposed that an open-casket funeral was not possible,” according to the lawsuit.
The advanced decomposition of his body also made it impossible to perform an autopsy, making it impossible to sustain a potential medical malpractice claim.
‘While a patient who does not survive may be just another lifeless body for Mercy San Juan Hospital, Jessie was a family member, a daughter and a sister, all of whom deserved the dignity and respect that Mercy San Juan did not afford them.’
“To this day, the hospital has not apologized to Jessie’s family,” the lawsuit states.
Peterson was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes as a child. Later in life, she struggled with drug addiction, her mother said. But that didn’t stop her from staying in touch with her family.
DailyMail.com has contacted the hospital’s operators, who told other outlets that they extend their “deepest condolences to the family during this difficult time.”
Congi said Peterson was an avid athlete as a child, participating in dance, gymnastics and water polo. She had to cut back on these activities when she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 10.
As an adult, Peterson enjoyed traveling around California, but also struggled with drug addiction.
“There was a year where he was doing really, really well,” Congi said. “And then he would take a step back.”
But even when she was struggling, Peterson was always in touch with her mother.
Congi said he decided to file the lawsuit, which seeks $5 million in actual damages and $10 million in punitive damages, when the hospital rejected all of his questions about how Peterson died.
But he admitted that his biggest question will probably never be answered.
“I would really like to know what happened to Jessie when she was taking her last breaths,” she said.