For practically a 12 months after she seemingly vanished from a Sacramento-area hospital, Jessie Peterson’s household mounted a frantic search — distributing posters of her and calling any hospital and police division they may consider, however to no avail.
However the 31-year-old wasn’t lacking. She had by no means left the hospital alive.
In a lawsuit filed this month, the Peterson household alleges that workers at Mercy San Juan Medical Heart in Carmichael by no means notified them that Jessie had died. As an alternative, their lawyer informed The Occasions, they have been led to imagine she had checked out of the hospital — in opposition to medical recommendation — in April 2023.
“You don’t simply get to make these sorts of errors and assume it’s OK,” lawyer Marc R. Greenberg mentioned.
A spokesperson for Mercy San Juan, which is operated by Dignity Well being and owned by CommonSpirit Well being, declined to touch upon the lawsuit.
“We prolong our deepest sympathies to the household throughout this troublesome time,” a spokesperson wrote in an e-mail. “We’re unable to touch upon pending litigation.”
The lawsuit seeks $25 million in damages, together with punitive damages for “outrageous and inexcusable negligence.”
Jessie Peterson, proper, along with her sister, Angie Rubino.
(Ginger J. Congi)
In accordance with the lawsuit, Peterson, who had been recognized with Sort 1 diabetes when she was 10, checked into Mercy San Juan Medical Heart on April 6, 2023, after she suffered a diabetic episode.
Two days later, Peterson known as her mom, Ginger Congi, and requested her to select her up from the hospital.
Roughly two hours after that decision, based on the swimsuit, Peterson was pronounced lifeless on the hospital. The next day, the lawsuit says, her physique was taken to a cold-storage facility and positioned on shelf “Pink 22 A,” and remained there for 361 days.
After not listening to again from her daughter, Congi known as the hospital on April 11, 2023, however was informed she had checked herself out.
As days glided by with no signal of or phrase from Peterson, her household started a search that in the end lasted months, Greenberg mentioned. The household reported her lacking to the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Workplace, and contacted the California Division of Justice in order that Peterson can be included on their lacking individuals web site.
Angie Rubino, Peterson’s sister, posted fliers and reached out to homeless folks within the space to see whether or not anybody may need any info.
It wasn’t till April 12, 2024, that Peterson’s household was contacted by the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Workplace and informed that she was lifeless.
However Peterson’s physique had not been discovered. Somewhat, sheriff’s officers have been notified as a result of a health care provider at Mercy San Juan Medical Heart had filed a dying certificates.
California legislation requires physicians to fill out a dying certificates inside 15 hours of a dying. Peterson’s wasn’t filed for 361 days, based on the lawsuit.
Jessie Peterson’s physique was taken to a cold-storage facility and positioned on shelf “Pink 22 A,” and remained there for 361 days, based on a lawsuit filed by her household.
(Ginger J. Congi)
In accordance with medical data reviewed by The Occasions, after the dying certificates was issued, Rubino known as the physician who had cared for Peterson the day she died.
“It looks as if household is thinking about coming to the hospital and have particular questions relating to what could have taken this lengthy for hospital to inform the dying of their member of the family because it has been a few 12 months,” Dr. Nadeem Mukhtar wrote in a be aware following the decision. “I didn’t try to reply this query, nevertheless inspired [them] to achieve out to the hospital and see if an in-person assembly might be scheduled.”
Mukhtar didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark Tuesday.
In accordance with Greenberg, relations even have discovered inconsistencies within the medical paperwork they’ve obtained, elevating additional questions on Peterson’s dying.
One document signifies that Peterson pulled out her personal intravenous line at one level, however two others state a nurse disconnected it, Greenberg mentioned.
One other document states {that a} chest X-ray was carried out when she checked in on April 6, 2023, and was in contrast with a subsequent scan carried out on Might 31, 2023.
“She was lifeless and in chilly storage by then, so what did [they] evaluate it to?” Greenberg mentioned.
By the point Peterson’s household discovered her physique, he mentioned, it had decomposed an excessive amount of for an post-mortem that will have yielded solutions in regards to the type of care she obtained.
“We’ll by no means actually know what occurred to her,” Greenberg mentioned.
