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US hospital told family their daughter had checked out when in fact she’d died (www.theguardian.com)
submitted 2 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world
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Jessie Peterson’s family spent a year searching for her after they were told that she had checked herself out of a California hospital against medical advice – before they learned that she had been dead all along.

The 31-year-old died in the care of Mercy San Juan medical center in Sacramento in April 2023. The hospital shipped her body to a storage facility and did not inform her mother and sisters. The family only learned her fate the following April after months of trying to find her, according to a civil lawsuit against the hospital.

In the lawsuit, filed earlier this month, the family described the hospital’s conduct as “malicious and outrageous” and accused the facility of negligence, the negligent handling of a corpse and negligent infliction of emotional distress.

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[-] the_crotch@sh.itjust.works 221 points 2 months ago

Her body was so decomposed the family could not obtain her fingerprints or hold an open casket funeral, and an autopsy that could have indicated whether there had been medical malpractice associated with her death was “rendered impossible”, according to the lawsuit.

This is fishy as fuck

[-] jpreston2005@lemmy.world 80 points 2 months ago

At this point, you should just assume some sort of medical malpractice, and likely, sexual assault. Better to face a lawsuit about mishandling of a corpse, than a lawsuit about your staff assaulting patients under their care. From a business perspective, it's a no-brainer /s

[-] lauha@lemmy.one 26 points 2 months ago

Nice, so a destruction of evidence cse as well

[-] Duamerthrax@lemmy.world 27 points 2 months ago

Honestly, this might be the simplest explanation. This would be a uniquely stupid mistake otherwise.

[-] Aviandelight@mander.xyz 148 points 2 months ago

WTF!? How is the state health board not jumping into a complete investigation of this hospital at this point and/or shutting this place down? I have so many questions. The first of many is how did they "store" this body so that it decomposed to the point of being unrecognizable? This whole thing reads like they let her die from malpractice and then threw the body in a closet to hide the evidence.

[-] EmpathicVagrant@lemmy.world 58 points 2 months ago

They made profits last quarter, no need to investigate since that’s all that matters in this country.

[-] Boozilla@lemmy.world 112 points 2 months ago

Hospital Admin: "Is this patient giving me money right now?"

Ward Assistant: "Sir, she's dead."

Admin: "Why is she wasting space that could be giving me money? Do something with it."

Ward Assistant: "I think we should notify the family."

Admin: "That sounds like a waste of time that doesn't give me money".

[-] Nithanim@programming.dev 8 points 2 months ago

This reminds me of the spongebob episode where krabs was in hospital and, because of money, was moved out before the vending machine, then to the parking place, and finally kicked down the hill. Back then it was funny but being reminded of it by the real world feels very much... not good.

[-] exanime@lemmy.world 85 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

I've worked IT systems for hospitals my entire career; this Hospital franchise uses Epic Systems as their EMR, I know it well, I have like 7 certs for Epic System modules. There is a TON of paperwork associated with a discharge against medical advice since the hospitals definitely want to cover their butts in such cases.

There is ZERO chance the hospital mixed her release as leaving against medical advice and/or have the documentation to back that up. Even if the person just sneaks out of the hospital, that is considered a "code" alert (colour depends on the hospital) until they can determine the patient is not in danger to themselves or others. Again, ZERO chance this happened without more than one person knowingly falsifying records... best I can imagine to give the Hospital the benefit of doubt, is criminal negligence

Moreover, death in hospitals and handling (as in moving and storing) of human remains has an even bigger avalanche of regulations and documentation, all of which would have to be completely missing for them not to notice.

[-] roguetrick@lemmy.world 36 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Am nurse. You are allowed to walk out AMA without signing shit if you have capacity and you're generally assumed to have capacity unless indicated otherwise. I would like you to sign the documents, but I cannot force you or imprison you and I'm not going to call security. Going AMA without signing something or seeing a doctor is not elopement.

Since she called her mother saying she needed a ride on the 8th and they stated she went AMA on the 8th, I honestly believe she went AMA, maybe even signed it, and then ended up dying off the unit. It's the most plausible scenario. How everything else got fucked up is another situation. If they already discharged her maybe they didn't readmit once she died? Everyone thought it was someone else's job? Saw she was "discharged" on the board and thought someone else already handled the death checklist?

Edit: the filing https://prod-portal-sacramento-ca.journaltech.com/public-portal/?q=downloadFile/18267732/2204994 she died two hours after she called her mother for a ride. No fillings from the defendants yet to see what else was going on.

[-] exanime@lemmy.world 21 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Sure you are allowed but that is documented. In Canada if someone gets out of bed and leaves the hospital, the patient and/or next of kin are contacted. If that fails and it is determined there is no risk, the fact the patient left without announcing it is documented and it's not the same form as the regular AMA (where patient do sign)

The above part of the scenario may be muddy but there is zero justification for the handling of the remains. This person clearly died in the hospital or close enough to be returned. How is that part mishandled for a year when they also have a patient missing??!

Also, all my respect to nurses, you are the life blood of the hethcare system. However, this is an administrative fuck up, not something nurses are expected to deal with (again, at least not in Canada). A nurse would announce a patient just walked away and it's the job of admins and sometime social workers from there on

[-] roguetrick@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

In my state, nurses handle discharge entirely, whether it's to the door or to the pearly gates. Someone may look over our work later, but we're the ones who set the chart to be flagged as discharged and we're the ones who ensure they're correctly tagged and carted to the morgue. Generally we do not notify someone's next of kin of their AMA in the US as that would be a HIPPA violation unless they're deemed to be in danger and without capacity. Everything, as always, has carve outs and grey areas.

What happened with the body makes it sound like a Jane Doe unclaimed, but regardless there was systemic fuck ups going on here.

[-] OutsizedWalrus@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago

Your analysis fails to account for the human element involved. The person putting the records in may have made assumptions .

[-] exanime@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago

Maybe that's legal in the States but it would be very illegal in Canada

You cannot fill a patient's chart with assumptions

[-] cheese_greater@lemmy.world 72 points 2 months ago

She checked out but she could never leave

[-] ramble81@lemm.ee 49 points 2 months ago

Hospital California. The Eagles lesser known version.

[-] luciferofastora@lemmy.zip 8 points 2 months ago

The Vultures?

[-] jaybone@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago

On a dark doctors x-ray

Cool wind, no health care,

Warm smell of corruption,

Rising up through the air,

[-] NarrativeBear@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Checks out

[-] crusty@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 months ago

Against medical advice

[-] Boxscape@lemmy.sdf.org 52 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

told that she had checked herself out of a California hospital against medical advice – before they learned that she had been dead all along.

Who told the family?
Dr. Fishman from Arrested Development? 😏

[-] Pretzilla@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

"no I told you she 'checked out' - I was saying she died"

[-] Samvega@lemmy.blahaj.zone 44 points 2 months ago

Dignity Health, which operates Mercy San Juan...

Yep, really going for dignity.

[-] gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com 33 points 2 months ago

Oh shit I know that hospital, it's only 30m from where I work!

My mom worked for Quest Diagnostics for years and I remember her bitching about how terrible this specific hospital was at basically everything

[-] x00z@lemmy.world 19 points 2 months ago

Privatized hospitals...

[-] LEDZeppelin@lemmy.world 16 points 2 months ago

c\technicallytheturth

[-] PapaStevesy@lemmy.world 27 points 2 months ago

Are you prepared to tell the turth, the whole turth, and nothing but the turth?

[-] I_Miss_Daniel@lemmy.world 14 points 2 months ago

How about c:\techni~1

[-] ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 2 months ago

I'm partial to /user/home/c/technicallythetruth/

[-] Bluetreefrog@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

We'll I'll agree that it's better than c:/user/home/technicallythetruth/

[-] billiam0202@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

You can't handle the turth!

[-] intensely_human@lemm.ee 14 points 2 months ago

Our culture is getting worse.

[-] collapse_already@lemmy.ml 12 points 2 months ago

I was waiting for the story to be that they were finally told when a debt collector contacted them about unpaid body storage fees.

[-] ShinkanTrain@lemmy.ml 10 points 2 months ago

That will be two million dollars

[-] P1nkman@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago

"Checked out" - technically...

[-] lauha@lemmy.one 4 points 2 months ago

I hear Hitler also checked out of WW2 near the end of the war

[-] HawlSera@lemm.ee 7 points 2 months ago

This is sadly not the first time I've heard about this, and the first time I did involved the hospital literally calling a Taxi for the corpse, sending it home, and assuring the cab driver he was just sleeping.

The family was not amused

[-] HubertManne@moist.catsweat.com 4 points 2 months ago

To be fair they said she was not with us anymore. okay really bad for /s but I dunno the whole thing like everything in this millenium is just so crazy fucked up crying type of laughter.

[-] x00z@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago

There might be miscommunication in the beginning, but if the family is showing up at the coroner's office and repeatedly asking the hospital for information, that should have sparked an investigation by the hospital.

[-] intensely_human@lemm.ee 2 points 2 months ago

I worked at Lowe’s and it was horrible, but if someone had showed up asking about a fucking refrigerator we would have launched an investigation.

[-] x00z@lemmy.world 0 points 2 months ago

If they keep coming you asking where the hell their refrigerator went that just left your store, you would.

[-] intensely_human@lemm.ee 2 points 2 months ago

Yes, that is what I said

[-] TheReturnOfPEB@reddthat.com -3 points 2 months ago

I'm gonna guess that a traveling nurse did this.

[-] Duranie@literature.cafe 4 points 2 months ago

Huh?

this post was submitted on 22 Aug 2024
588 points (99.3% liked)

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