Family of Jessie Peterson, 31, spent a year searching for her before learning hospital had shipped body to storage facility

Jessie Peterson’s family spent a year searching for her after they were told that she had checked herself out of a California hospital against medical advice – before they learned that she had been dead all along.

The 31-year-old died in the care of Mercy San Juan medical center in Sacramento in April 2023. The hospital shipped her body to a storage facility and did not inform her mother and sisters. The family only learned her fate the following April after months of trying to find her, according to a civil lawsuit against the hospital.

In the lawsuit, filed earlier this month, the family described the hospital’s conduct as “malicious and outrageous” and accused the facility of negligence, the negligent handling of a corpse and negligent infliction of emotional distress.

  • Aviandelight @mander.xyz
    1502·
    3 months ago

    WTF!? How is the state health board not jumping into a complete investigation of this hospital at this point and/or shutting this place down? I have so many questions. The first of many is how did they “store” this body so that it decomposed to the point of being unrecognizable? This whole thing reads like they let her die from malpractice and then threw the body in a closet to hide the evidence.