Woman says hospital lost her missing daughter’s body for a year

A woman in California said her daughter died at Mercy San Juan Medical Center and the hospital lost her body for more than a year.

In a negligence lawsuit, Ginger Congi claimed her adult daughter, Jessie Peterson, suffered from Type I diabetes and was being treated at Mercy San Juan in April 2023. She was admitted to the hospital, where her mother would last see her alive.

After a few days of silence, Congi called Mercy San Juan only to be told her daughter had been discharged. The hospital had no other information as to Peterson’s whereabouts.

In a panic, Congi began looking for her daughter, filing a missing persons report with the police and putting up flyers all over town. Unfortunately, Peterson was never found—until her body was found in April 2024, a year from the time she went missing, in cold storage at Mercy San Juan.

A death certificate for Peterson was never properly filed, Congi and her attorney alleged. They are seeking damages.

Read the full story from KWTX10 at the link below.

Chad Van Alstin Health Imaging Health Exec

Chad is an award-winning writer and editor with over 15 years of experience working in media. He has a decade-long professional background in healthcare, working as a writer and in public relations.

Around the web

Compensation for heart specialists continues to climb. What does this say about cardiology as a whole? Could private equity's rising influence bring about change? We spoke to MedAxiom CEO Jerry Blackwell, MD, MBA, a veteran cardiologist himself, to learn more.

The American College of Cardiology has shared its perspective on new CMS payment policies, highlighting revenue concerns while providing key details for cardiologists and other cardiology professionals. 

As debate simmers over how best to regulate AI, experts continue to offer guidance on where to start, how to proceed and what to emphasize. A new resource models its recommendations on what its authors call the “SETO Loop.”