Hospital officials in Northern California reportedly told the family of a 31-year-old woman that she had been discharged, while she had actually died and her body was kept in cold storage for a year, according to a civil lawsuit.

Jessie Marie Peterson, who was suffering from Type 1 diabetes, was admitted to Mercy San Juan Medical Center on April 6 of last year, as detailed in the lawsuit filed earlier this month in Sacramento County Superior Court by her family.

Days after her admission, Peterson’s mother, Ginger Congi, contacted the hospital to check on her daughter and was informed that Peterson had been discharged, according to the lawsuit.

The family then reported Peterson as missing to the county sheriff’s department, put up notices around town, and even sought information from local homeless people, hoping someone had seen her.

It wasn’t until April 12, 2024, that the Sacramento County Detective’s Office informed Peterson’s family that she had been found deceased at Mercy San Juan hospital, the lawsuit claims.

By that time, Peterson’s body had decomposed to the extent that an open casket funeral was impossible, and her fingerprints could not be collected for keepsakes. The advanced decomposition also prevented an autopsy from determining if medical malpractice contributed to her death.

The family later discovered that Peterson had died on April 8 of the previous year, but it wasn’t until April 4 of this year that a death certificate was signed by Dr. Nadeem Mukhtar.

During most of this period, Peterson’s body was stored on shelf No. Red 22A in an off-site cold storage unit, according to hospital records obtained by the family.

The family is seeking $25 million in damages for the hospital’s alleged negligence.

A representative from Dignity Health, the hospital’s parent organization, was not immediately available for comment.

“Mercy San Juan hospital claims to treat all people with dignity and respect,” said Marc Greenberg, the plaintiffs’ attorney. “In this case, there was neither dignity nor respect. The hospital failed in its basic duty to notify Jessie’s family of her death and stored her body in an off-site warehouse, leaving it to decompose for nearly a year while her family desperately sought information about her.”

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