California, US - Jessie Peterson, 31, missing for a year found dead in hospital’s storage facility, hospital had told family she had checked out

[PrairieWind]

According to Greenberg, family members also have found inconsistencies in the medical documents they’ve received, raising further questions about Peterson’s death.

[…]

Another record states that a chest X-ray was done when she checked in on April 6, 2023, and was compared with a subsequent scan done on May 31, 2023.

“She was dead and in cold storage by then, so what did [they] compare it to?” Greenberg said.

A California hospital told her family she left. Her body was found in cold storage months later, suit says

Jessie Peterson's family searched nearly a year for her. In a lawsuit, they allege Mercy San Juan Medical Center failed to tell them she died, and instead put her body in cold storage.

www.latimes.com

This allegation of the May 31st x ray is interesting. Who was it done on, and more importantly perhaps, is who was billed for it? No way an x-ray happens in a hospital without it getting billed to someone. Insurance? Medicaid? State of Calif? Some third-party? Was it paid?

 

[al66pine]

Too Decomposed? MSM Accuracy?

Peterson's family began a relentless search, filing a missing persons report, reaching out to the community, posting flyers with her photo throughout the city, even getting her name added to the US Department of Justice website for missing persons.

Finally, more than a year after her disappearance, a phone call from a detective with the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office gave them the news they had dreaded: A death certificate had been issued for Jessie

One of Jessie's sisters went to the Sacramento County Coroner's Office but was told her remains were not there. Instead, she was told to contact the hospital.

Peterson's mother, Ginger Congi, reached someone at the hospital who told her they would call back. No call came immediately, but a mortuary later contacted Congi and said Jessie's body had been found at one of the hospital's off-site cold storage facilities.

Her body was too decomposed for an autopsy.

As it turned out, Jessie had died about two hours after her last call to her mother.

A California woman died at the hospital. Her family, unaware, searched for her for over a year

A lawsuit filed in California alleges a hospital misplaced a patient and failed to notify her family. Here is what the family says happened.

abc7chicago.com

@imstilla.grandma Thx for your post w quotes from cnn link, including this one:
"Her body was too decomposed for an autopsy."
^ Stated as FACT by reporter.

I wondered how/why remains were "too decomposed" for an autopsy, as we sometimes read about autopsies conducted on remains w little remaining tissue or even skeletal remains.

Later, story notes ^ is an ALLEGATION in parent's petition against hosp "for negligence, negligent handling of a corpse, negligent infliction of emotional distress and violating California Health and Safety Code." <--- in petition, per article.

Then more from petition: "Because Jessie's death was not reported to family for a year after her death, an autopsy to determine whether medical malpractice played any role in her death was rendered impossible."

So petition does not precisely allege "too decomposed for autopsy."
Not clear to me why a delayed autopsy could not provide findings which may have been somehow useful and admissable as evd. in the civil suit.

Not commenting about atty or merits of case, so much as questioning MSM ACCURACY. Of course, reporters work under deadlines.

Regardless a tragedy.

 

[PrairieWind]

Too Decomposed? MSM Accuracy?

@imstilla.grandma Thx for your post w quotes from cnn link, including this one:
"Her body was too decomposed for an autopsy."
^ Stated as FACT by reporter.

I wondered how/why remains were "too decomposed" for an autopsy, as we sometimes read about autopsies conducted on remains w little remaining tissue or even skeletal remains.

Later, story notes ^ is an ALLEGATION in parent's petition against hosp "for negligence, negligent handling of a corpse, negligent infliction of emotional distress and violating California Health and Safety Code." <--- in petition, per article.

Then more from petition: "Because Jessie's death was not reported to family for a year after her death, an autopsy to determine whether medical malpractice played any role in her death was rendered impossible."

So petition does not precisely allege "too decomposed for autopsy."
Not clear to me why a delayed autopsy could not provide findings which may have been somehow useful and admissable as evd. in the civil suit.

Not commenting about atty or merits of case, so much as questioning MSM ACCURACY. Of course, reporters work under deadlines.

Regardless a tragedy.

I'd like to see the actual Complaint. I would think the attorney is being careful with his words and may be doing this strategically. What has the coroner or state medical examiner said? It will be interesting to see how the hospital answers this averment.

 

[LordMo]

This allegation of the May 31st x ray is interesting. Who was it done on, and more importantly perhaps, is who was billed for it? No way an x-ray happens in a hospital without it getting billed to someone. Insurance? Medicaid? State of Calif? Some third-party? Was it paid?

as a biller/coder who's made some mistakes and has also had to deal with the fallout of mistakes from others, it's not impossible for a facility charge like that to get "disappeared" from billing due to sloppy coding and documentation, but.... it'd be very rare. And usually has multiple layers of redundancies to keep it from going unsent. And the actual facilities coders are incredibly detailed, and admin reports are more thorough than I thought was possible when I started a decade ago.

Now, my particular market is probably nowhere near as busy as a major CA hospital, but even if someone did try to "disappear" a charge from their billing interface, my gut feeling is that there's going to be a digital "paper trail."

 

[Soulmagent]

Last time I was admitted to a hospital ,They actually almost admitted me under a different persons name.That mistake had like 9 people in my room at once , I was medicated heavily and barely caught the mistake ,I was the one to point it out and because of that mistake a couple of really great nurses followed up with me to make sure I was okay.
They kept asking me ,if this name was my name and it wasn't, I keep saying No ,every time I said it was not me ,they would seem to get mad or annoyed . They thought I was lying to them .
Also they actually knew my name , and had picked me up at my house. So wtf? Anyway I hope they have a list of all the organs that went out when Jessie died ,every record of everything from that hospital . This is not an innocent accident imo.

 

[Charlot123]

as a biller/coder who's made some mistakes and has also had to deal with the fallout of mistakes from others, it's not impossible for a facility charge like that to get "disappeared" from billing due to sloppy coding and documentation, but.... it'd be very rare. And usually has multiple layers of redundancies to keep it from going unsent. And the actual facilities coders are incredibly detailed, and admin reports are more thorough than I thought was possible when I started a decade ago.

Now, my particular market is probably nowhere near as busy as a major CA hospital, but even if someone did try to "disappear" a charge from their billing interface, my gut feeling is that there's going to be a digital "paper trail."

Well, it could be a situation when her documents are lost since the article says she was homeless and maybe, she has no insurance. Then, there are GAU (County) grants which are for people without any insurance. Coding and "who to bill" are different things.

 

[Soulmagent]

Well, it could be a situation when her documents are lost since the article says she was homeless and maybe, she has no insurance. Then, there are GAU (County) grants which are for people without any insurance. Coding and "who to bill" are different things.

I don't understand how this invalidates the oddity of those May x rays.
Nor does it explain why the homeless persons parent were told she was told she had "checked out""
Weird words ,but I read them in this case soo..