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. The radiologist charges for the procedure and what he needs is the name, the procedure and the code. But in a way, the radiologist does not need to verify that the person they brought in is the same as the last time. He may see that the bones on the Xray are different...or the same. (Professional memory.) Or, these may be different doctors working on these days. And if the doctor is hyperfocused, he may be looking only at the lungs and writing that "pneumonia has resolved", not noticing that the film on the left has an old healed fracture of L shoulder, and on the right, doesn't. It happens, too.

Who they go afterwards for payment, the Medicaid, the Medicare, the GAU or write it off, is the hospital's job. Another level of separation, another mess.

 

[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..

 

[Charlot123]

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.

I doubt she'd be a good candidate for transplantation tbh, with type I DM and dying, probably was not in a good shape at all. RIP, poor woman. But of course, some mistakes were made at all levels, as we can see. In contrast to others, I don't think it was a coverup of someone’s medical mistake, I believe it was a chain of mistakes that weren't caught till one year later.

As to confusing patients? Easily. My kid had an MRI done in a major hospital. A very nice, older and "old school" nurse said "the doctor needs your blood." I was slightly surprised as we were an outside referral (they showed movies in MRI machine, that's why we went there). But OK. And then the door opened and another nurse invited my son in, calling him by his first name. Only it was not his name. It was my other child's first name, and for all I knew, we had never been to that place before. This caught my attention. "Wait a moment, what is this kid's name?", I asked the nurse, pointing at my son. She said "XX" and it was not close at all, I mean, very hard to confuse. "OK," said I, "this is not him," and then looking at that vial of blood I added, "and don't tell me my son's blood is labeled with the other kid's name." Of course it was. The nurse had to report it as a mistake and obviously didn't want to, and I said, it is up to her, technically, not a mistake yet (as i caught it...I felt sorry for her, tbh.) But even this could have ended poorly, because, MRI, and what if the other doctor wanted to check his patient's drug level in plasma, and my son was on no meds. In the worst case scenario, it could be a CPS call for the other kid's family. So stuff happens all the time, and we all huge lists of stories.

However: these used to be potentially serious, but still random things. But now they are becoming too frequent. In all fields. Am i the only one to notice it? And they are caught only when something exorbitant happens, like that MAX door, or Maui coast guard not activating alarm during the fire in Lahaina, or a body forgotten in the morgue for a year. It is a chain of mistakes at all levels, and as I suspect, everywhere in the world, btw.

Which makes me wonder... they say post-Covid syndrome may be serious, but is still very rare. But recently, i have been thinking...what if a person is complaining of "brain fog", but objectively, nothing major shows? Unless you are young and had full battery of neurocognitive tests done before Covid and then, in 2023-2024, how can you catch a small decline in working memory, for example? Or a tad worse processing speed? What if it is some inattentiveness that no one notices because it is so new?

What I wonder is if we are all living in Covid-induced inattention time, and it will be realized in ten years, when major statistic data will become finally available? That the whole world is struggling with the same? Basically, a chain of untied ends?

Seriously, I don't think this case is a conspiracy. I see some disconnect at all levels, the ward (I still don't know if it was ER or the floor), misplacing the body, then the body not getting to the pathologist (they have a schedule, right?), now these Xrays. Either it was initially mistaken identity that no one caught, or a strange chain of disjointed mistakes at each level of the hospital, pointing at something we are all struggling from, but no one yet has explained.

 

[Rikissa]

Do hospital patients in the US get a wrist band with their name and birth date when thet are admitted? If so, then someone(s) have not checked the name on the band with the name on the xray order. Here in Sweden the patients get a wrist band at hospital.

 

[Soulmagent]

I doubt she'd be a good candidate for transplantation tbh, with type I DM and dying, probably was not in a good shape at all. RIP, poor woman. But of course, some mistakes were made at all levels, as we can see. In contrast to others, I don't think it was a coverup of someone’s medical mistake, I believe it was a chain of mistakes that weren't caught till one year later.

As to confusing patients? Easily. My kid had an MRI done in a major hospital. A very nice, older and "old school" nurse said "the doctor needs your blood." I was slightly surprised as we were an outside referral (they showed movies in MRI machine, that's why we went there). But OK. And then the door opened and another nurse invited my son in, calling him by his first name. Only it was not his name. It was my other child's first name, and for all I knew, we had never been to that place before. This caught my attention. "Wait a moment, what is this kid's name?", I asked the nurse, pointing at my son. She said "XX" and it was not close at all, I mean, very hard to confuse. "OK," said I, "this is not him," and then looking at that vial of blood I added, "and don't tell me my son's blood is labeled with the other kid's name." Of course it was. The nurse had to report it as a mistake and obviously didn't want to, and I said, it is up to her, technically, not a mistake yet (as i caught it...I felt sorry for her, tbh.) But even this could have ended poorly, because, MRI, and what if the other doctor wanted to check his patient's drug level in plasma, and my son was on no meds. In the worst case scenario, it could be a CPS call for the other kid's family. So stuff happens all the time, and we all huge lists of stories.

However: these used to be potentially serious, but still random things. But now they are becoming too frequent. In all fields. Am i the only one to notice it? And they are caught only when something exorbitant happens, like that MAX door, or Maui coast guard not activating alarm during the fire in Lahaina, or a body forgotten in the morgue for a year. It is a chain of mistakes at all levels, and as I suspect, everywhere in the world, btw.

Which makes me wonder... they say post-Covid syndrome may be serious, but is still very rare. But recently, i have been thinking...what if a person is complaining of "brain fog", but objectively, nothing major shows? Unless you are young and had full battery of neurocognitive tests done before Covid and then, in 2023-2024, how can you catch a small decline in working memory, for example? Or a tad worse processing speed? What if it is some inattentiveness that no one notices because it is so new?

What I wonder is if we are all living in Covid-induced inattention time, and it will be realized in ten years, when major statistic data will become finally available? That the whole world is struggling with the same? Basically, a chain of untied ends?

Seriously, I don't think this case is a conspiracy. I see some disconnect at all levels, the ward (I still don't know if it was ER or the floor), misplacing the body, then the body not getting to the pathologist (they have a schedule, right?), now these Xrays. Either it was initially mistaken identity that no one caught, or a strange chain of disjointed mistakes at each level of the hospital, pointing at something we are all struggling from, but no one yet has explained.

I cannot realistically believe this happens as a mistake 3 hundred an 61 days ,was it? Maybe it was a mistake but
How ?? Plus her family knew she WAS there ..so they called and found her records indicated she was released, So again HOW? I don't care if this case is a conspiracy or not, I already know it is a direct deficit across a hoard of professionals.
She died with Hospital wrist bands or at least should have had some on at the time of her death, which I assume had zero reason to be removed for cold storage..IMO

@Rikissa I posted before I saw you ask the question ,but your absolutely correct ,It works like that in the U.S and plus they scan them with little scanner things.

​

 

[truthfinder2019]

Oh my gosh I am SHOCKED

 

[truthfinder2019]

Post Mortem - Autopsy 101

www.pbs.org

​

TIMELINESS IS CRITICAL​

Forensic pathologist Dr. Stephen J. Cina says that autopsies are best if performed within 24 hours of death, before organs deteriorate, and ideally before embalming, which can interfere with toxicology and blood cultures. But autopsies performed on decomposed or even exhumed bodies can still provide vital new information, depending on the extent of decomposition.

Autopsies usually take two to four hours to perform. Preliminary results can be released within 24 hours, but the full results of an autopsy may take up to six weeks to prepare.

Autopsy

What answers can — and can’t — an autopsy provide? Learn more.

my.clevelandclinic.org

Pathologists can do autopsies on bodies any time after death. However, the sooner, the better. After 24 hours, organs and other body tissues start to deteriorate, which makes it more difficult to perform certain tests and assess their accuracy.

Forensic pathologists can still do autopsies on decomposed or exhumed (removed from burial in the ground) bodies. But the detail and extent of information (and/or evidence) they can gather may be limited

 

[Charlot123]

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..

It doesn't. The question was about billing. I pointed out that the billing is for the procedure and detached from the patient.

Now, what we don't know is whether the April X-ray was of the same person as the May one. The X-rays are kept in the computer, they don't disappear. They need to be looked at, now.

As to the rest, your guess is as good as mine.

Is this case one big conspiracy? Honestly, I don't think the staff of the hospital is either smart or organized for that. They found a body in the morgue a year later and are clueless.

This article has Jessie's death certificate. All I hope is they took material for DNA identification of her.

California woman was believed to be missing while her body decomposed in a hospital morgue: lawsuit

For more than a year, the family of Jessie Peterson lived in agony, believing that the Northern California woman had gone missing. But according to a new lawsuit, it turned out she had been dead the whole time with her body sitting unclaimed and “forgotten" after a hospital moved it to a “cold...

www.ktvu.com

 

[truthfinder2019]

This article mentions Jessie had been struggling with Type 1 diabetes since childhood, and at times she battled with addiction and homelessness.
I cannot even imagine what this family had to go and is going through. Prayers for them that at least justice is served. Won’t take back their beloved daughter though.

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

 

[Rikissa]

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.

If you by this mean that any of her organs would have been taken for organ transplant, no. As she seems to have died about two hours after having spoken with her mother, her death would have been 'natural', probably organ failiure. She was not brain dead, kept in the IUC after an accident. Organs taken for transplantation has to be 'alive', because as soon as a person dies of natural causes, the heart stops pumping out oxygenated blood, and the organs begin to die, and are not suitable for donation. The only organ that might be useful from a person who died of natural causes would be the cornea of the eyes.

 

[Soulmagent]

If you by this mean that any of her organs would have been taken for organ transplant, no. As she seems to have died about two hours after having spoken with her mother, her death would have been 'natural', probably organ failiure. She was not brain dead, kept in the IUC after an accident. Organs taken for transplantation has to be 'alive', because as soon as a person dies of natural causes, the heart stops pumping out oxygenated blood, and the organs begin to die, and are not suitable for donation. The only organ that might be useful from a person who died of natural causes would be the cornea of the eyes.

I just read a whole lot of things that let me know , she would have be edible for being a donor . She died in a hospital setting and was talking to her mom 2 hours before she died.
Organ donation: Don't let these myths confuse you
Organ donor specimens: What can they tell us about type 1 diabetes?
Do Certain Conditions Make You Ineligible to Donate?
I have not seen her COD yet though and that could matter greatly.

 

[Rikissa]

I just read a whole lot of things that let me know , she would have be edible for being a donor . She died in a hospital setting and was talking to her mom 2 hours before she died.
Organ donation: Don't let these myths confuse you
Organ donor specimens: What can they tell us about type 1 diabetes?
Do Certain Conditions Make You Ineligible to Donate?
I have not seen her COD yet though and that could matter greatly.

But JP was not brain dead before her death. It's not her illnesses that made her ineligible for organ donation, it was the fact that she had not been tested and found to be brain dead before her death. To test for brain death takes days, not two hours.

Nonliving Donors | Transplant Center | UC Davis Health

Although the supply of deceased donor organs is not enough to transplant everyone, there's been a push in recently to use every possible organ from every donor.

health.ucdavis.edu

 

[PrairieWind]

Do hospital patients in the US get a wrist band with their name and birth date when thet are admitted? If so, then someone(s) have not checked the name on the band with the name on the xray order. Here in Sweden the patients get a wrist band at hospital.
View attachment 527392

Yes, in the US you get the band when you are admitted (and if you are a child, parent/guardian gets one as well).

 

[formerlyme]

Now seeing that she was homeless, I strongly believe she went in requesting no info, it is possible there was some estrangement from the family. that means if the family calls they would be told there is no patient, or perhaps if mom said I just talked to her and mom had the room number they would say she is no longer there. I know it sounds inconceivable but as I stated this happened to me recently, I called the morgues, the police, the fire department I was able to confirm my sister was in the hospital but she requested the police and hospital to tell me nothing, she has now been missing (to me) for a month. I too wonder if she could have died if she was no info they probably would not locate family after her death. But it still does not make sense that she was in the hospital storage and not moved to the county morgue as indigent. I truly feel this families pain but I can tell you in the beginning police did not understand what no info meant in our case and actually told me fire dept dropped my sister in the parking lot and she must have wandered off as she was never "checked in" when she was in fact checked in under an alias. There is a lack of communication between hospital staff and police. So I do see how this could slip through cracks however as I said why was she not transferred to the county morgue?

 

[Charlot123]

Another question, what if Jesse signed into the hospital under another name? They require you to have a photo id, but what if a person doesn’t have it? How do they verify your identity?