Family of hospitalized patient who was recorded as having been discharged found dead in morgue after searching for a year
Jesse Peterson, who was admitted to a hospital in California, USA, was recorded as having been discharged, but it has been discovered that he actually died at the hospital.
US hospital told family their daughter had checked out when in fact she'd died | California | The Guardian
Peterson suffers from type 1 diabetes and was admitted to Mercy San Juan Medical Center on April 6, 2023 due to a seizure. Two days after his admission, he called his mother and asked her to drive him home because he was being discharged, but then he was missing.
When the mother contacted the hospital, she was told that her son's medical records stated that he had been discharged on April 8, 2023, and that he had left the hospital against his doctor's advice. The family began a search, posting flyers and asking homeless people for months, as well as contacting the police and the coroner's office.
On April 12, 2024, more than a year after the search began, the detective agency reported that Peterson's body had been found at Mercy San Juan Medical Center. Although the death certificate was dated April 2024, the body was in an advanced state of decomposition, making it impossible to fingerprint or examine the body, and therefore impossible to determine whether medical malpractice had contributed to Peterson's death.
The family is suing the hospital for failing to timely issue a death certificate, failing to notify next of kin, failing to examine the body, and mishandling the body. They are seeking more than $5 million in damages, claiming that the actions were so egregious that they should include punitive damages.
Dignity Health, which operates Mercy San Juan Medical Center, said in a statement: 'We offer our deepest condolences to the family. We cannot comment on pending litigation.'
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