Missing woman found dead in hospital freezer after a year — family sues for millions

Bombshell allegations surface against California hospital after 31-year-old woman believed to be alive and ‘missing’ was found in outdoor refrigerated storage unit. Jessie Peterson’s forgotten stays sat on shelf number ‘Red 22A’ for 361 days, and family says they were never notified of her death. Now Mercy San Juan Medical Center in Carmichael faces multi-million dollar settlement negligence lawsuit brought by the Peterson family.

On April 6, 2023, Peterson, who was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 10, checked herself into a Sacramento hospital after a diabetic episode. She was pronounced dead two days later and her body was taken to a cold storage facility where it remained for the subsequent year, without anyone knowing.

About two hours before her death, Peterson spoke on the phone to her mother, Ginger Congi, asking to be picked up from the hospital, based on the lawsuit. After Congi was unable to reconnect along with her daughter, she contacted the hospital directly on April 11, 2023, and received surprising news. A staff member said Peterson had checked herself out against doctor’s orders, the lawsuit claims.

After days with none sign of Peterson, her family began a desperate, extensive search for their missing loved one, who her mother described as “full of life” and “energy.” NBC NewsThe family notified the local sheriff’s office and called other hospitals in the realm. They solid a fair wider net, adding her name to the California Department of Justice’s missing individuals website. Peterson’s sister, Angie Rubino, put up fliers and even talked to homeless people in the realm, looking for clues, however the family found nothing.

The discovery of her body was a coincidence. According to the lawsuit, a doctor at Mercy San Juan Medical Center filed a death certificate — 361 days late — which triggered alarm on the sheriff’s office. California lawa doctor must file a death certificate inside 15 hours of death and speak to next of kin. On April 12, 2024, Peterson’s family was finally informed by a sheriff’s detective that their daughter was dead. The official explanation for death from the hospital was cardiopulmonary arrest, but her body was too decomposed for an autopsy to substantiate that, the criticism says.

The family, nonetheless, still didn’t know the complete story about Peterson’s stays until Congi spoke with East Lawn Mortuary on April 15 and learned that her daughter’s body had been discovered in an off-site storage unit. She still had an identification bracelet on her wrist, the lawsuit said. Their attorney, Marc R. Greenberg, expressed serious concerns in regards to the hospital in the criticism, stating, “This is not the first time Mercy San Juan Hospital has lost track of a patient who died under their care.”

Greenberg also pointed to alleged errors in Peterson’s medical records, the Los Angeles Times reported. For example, Peterson’s chest X-ray was allegedly taken on May 31, 2023, greater than a month after her death.

“She was already dead and in the cold room, so what did they compare it to?” Greenberg told the outlet. Another record says Peterson pulled the IV out herself at one point, but two other records say a nurse disconnected it, Greenberg said.

Mercy San Juan Medical Center has been criticized for care deficiencies in the past. In April 2022, a 61-year-old veteran was admitted to the emergency room after a severe fall and was placed on cement sidewalk outside the hospital for greater than an hour. He was not supplied with a spine board, and he was too injured to take a seat in a wheelchair, ABC10 reported.

As for Peterson’s family, Congi addressed the hospital directly in an interview with NBC: “I have absolutely no confidence in your hospital and the care you provide to your patients. You’ve lost that from me,” the grieving mother said, shaking her head in disbelief and frustration.