A family has filed a lawsuit against a Sacramento-area hospital, claiming the medical center failed to inform them of the death of a family member for more than a year.
Jessie Peterson, 31, went to Mercy San Juan Medical Center in Carmichael Parish on April 6, 2023, for a diabetic emergency.
The lawsuit, filed in Sacramento Superior Court, alleges that the hospital told the family that Peterson left the medical center two days later against doctor’s advice.
The family spent the next year searching for her, putting up “missing” flyers and filing reports with local and state police.
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In April 2024, the family learned from the East Lawn morgue that Peterson’s body was in a storage facility managed by Mercy San Juan, the lawsuit states.
“It was a rough road when I found out she had died. Then, you know, meeting the people at East Lawn and realizing that none of her tattoos on her body could be identified because her body was so discolored and decomposed, it was very, very disturbing,” Peterson’s mother, Ginger Congi, told FOX40.com.
According to a death certificate for Peterson, she died on April 8, 2023.
A statement from Dignity Health, the parent company of Mercy San Juan, which is also named in the lawsuit, said: “We extend our deepest condolences to the family during this difficult time. We cannot comment on ongoing litigation.”
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The attorney representing the family in the lawsuit, Marc Greenberg, told FOX40.com: “This should never have happened, and without the lawsuit, without the press, nothing will change.”
The lawsuit against the hospital and its owner seeks $5 million in compensatory damages and $10 million in punitive damages.
Congi and Greenberg agree that change is needed at the hospital and hope that Peterson’s story will be the turning point.
“I have lost all trust in the way they deal with people. I think they treated Jessie with complete disrespect and without humanity and compassion,” Congi said.
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