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I wonder if it's possible that she checked herself out but immediately died outside the hospital which would explain why the paper work was in order. I would no

I wonder if it's possible that she checked herself out but immediately died outside the hospital which would explain why the paper work was in order. I would not explain why after being ID'd, why family wasn't informed or how she was placed into offsite storage facility. Gross incompetence and criminal negligence. I hope the family gets the 5x the jury award as requested. Didn't know you could even do that.

cogman10 2y ago
> I wonder if it's possible that she checked herself out but immediately died outside the hospital I find that really unlikely. I mean, for starters, they had her body and knew it was her body in storage. That doesn't happen if they don't have IDs attached to the corpse. I find it unlikely that the hospital wouldn't be ringing the family like crazy because of a body they want to unload. Especially if they have the paperwork showing that she'd checked out. There'd be no reason not to almost immediately say "Hey, actually, we found her right outside the hospital dead, sorry for your loss". I'm guessing an obvious fuck up killed her like 10xing her insulin dosage by mistake. Or administering something other than insulin. And it wouldn't surprise me if, conveniently, 17 or 24 months just happens to be the retention policy for medical records.
- Terr_ 2y ago
  > And it wouldn't surprise me if, conveniently, 17 or 24 months just happens to be the retention policy for medical records. This was in California, where the law [0] is 7 years minimum, potentially more if the patient was a minor. AFAICT every state wants at least ~5 years of retention. [0] https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/california/22-CCR-72543 https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/california/22-CCR-72...
- sonotathrowaway 2y ago
  Or they needed to keep the body long enough that any evidence of malpractice could be hidden.
geor9e 2y ago
Like she died and the medical examiner took her directly? It doesn't sound like it from this: "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"
- bluSCALE4 2y ago
  I hear you but they also say that she signed herself out. That means she signed a waiver.
  - Retric 2y ago
    Perhaps someone signed a waiver. Based on the rest of the story I don’t think we can assume they are telling the truth without any evidence here.
    - bluSCALE4 2y ago
      Completely agree. It's the sort of case that their should be jail time, just not financial consequences.
      - vkou 2y ago
        Jail time in a system where responsibility is so diffused won't happen. Front-desk has a signed waiver? Good luck proving that it was the person on shift at the time who forged it, she doesn't remember what happened a year ago, and the existence of the fraudulent waiver isn't proof that she authored it. Nobody's responsible, and nobody's accountable. There's a legal requirement that someone at the hospital should have done their jobs, but there's no legal requirement that forces someone particular to do them.
LorenPechtel 2y ago
I think that would have been figured out. However, I see another scenario: She checks herself out (given that she called about leaving I find it reasonable to think she might have), goes to the bathroom and arrests in a stall but is not discovered for a while. The family is looking for her, the hospital correctly notes that she had checked herself out. Eventually her body is found. She's not a patient since she checked herself out. Somehow it fell through the cracks about notifying her family, or perhaps she didn't have ID on her and the body was sent as a Jane Doe.

cogman10 2y ago

> I wonder if it's possible that she checked herself out but immediately died outside the hospital I find that really unlikely. I mean, for starters, they had her body and knew it was her body in storage. That doesn't happen if they don't have IDs attached to the corpse. I find it unlikely that the hospital wouldn't be ringing the family like crazy because of a body they want to unload. Especially if they have the paperwork showing that she'd checked out. There'd be no reason not to almost immediately say "Hey, actually, we found her right outside the hospital dead, sorry for your loss". I'm guessing an obvious fuck up killed her like 10xing her insulin dosage by mistake. Or administering something other than insulin. And it wouldn't surprise me if, conveniently, 17 or 24 months just happens to be the retention policy for medical records.

Terr_ 2y ago
> And it wouldn't surprise me if, conveniently, 17 or 24 months just happens to be the retention policy for medical records. This was in California, where the law [0] is 7 years minimum, potentially more if the patient was a minor. AFAICT every state wants at least ~5 years of retention. [0] https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/california/22-CCR-72543 https://www.law.cornell.edu/regulations/california/22-CCR-72...
sonotathrowaway 2y ago
Or they needed to keep the body long enough that any evidence of malpractice could be hidden.

geor9e 2y ago

Like she died and the medical examiner took her directly? It doesn't sound like it from this: "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"

bluSCALE4 2y ago
I hear you but they also say that she signed herself out. That means she signed a waiver.
- Retric 2y ago
  Perhaps someone signed a waiver. Based on the rest of the story I don’t think we can assume they are telling the truth without any evidence here.
  - bluSCALE4 2y ago
    Completely agree. It's the sort of case that their should be jail time, just not financial consequences.
    - vkou 2y ago
      Jail time in a system where responsibility is so diffused won't happen. Front-desk has a signed waiver? Good luck proving that it was the person on shift at the time who forged it, she doesn't remember what happened a year ago, and the existence of the fraudulent waiver isn't proof that she authored it. Nobody's responsible, and nobody's accountable. There's a legal requirement that someone at the hospital should have done their jobs, but there's no legal requirement that forces someone particular to do them.

LorenPechtel 2y ago

I think that would have been figured out. However, I see another scenario: She checks herself out (given that she called about leaving I find it reasonable to think she might have), goes to the bathroom and arrests in a stall but is not discovered for a while. The family is looking for her, the hospital correctly notes that she had checked herself out. Eventually her body is found. She's not a patient since she checked herself out. Somehow it fell through the cracks about notifying her family, or perhaps she didn't have ID on her and the body was sent as a Jane Doe.