Harrowing reports of bodies allegedly being left to rot while the families were not notified about their loved ones passing away for months have come to light as the hospital’s parent company prepares for a hearing Tuesday.
CommonSpirit Health, a nonprofit Catholic health system, is slated to give testimony before the House Committee on Ways and Means, a source familiar confirmed to the Daily Caller.
Although the list of witnesses has not yet been shared publicly, the April 28 hearing will discuss “the impact of rising health care costs on patients and families by examining the role of health systems within the current state of health care affordability,” according to an advisory from the committee. (RELATED: Trump Fed Nominee Trolls Warren To Her Face At Hearing)
CommonSpirit Health is the parent company of Dignity Health, which owns and operates Mercy San Juan Medical Center in Carmichael, California, and Mercy General Hospital in Sacramento, according to a report from local outlet Broke Ass Stuart. The outlet shared documents and detailed the accusations of loved ones waiting — in one alleged instance for over a year — only to learn that their family member had died and their corpse had decomposed.
Mercy San Juan Medical Center was the subject of two state disciplinary actions between 2022 and 2023 and the topic of a federal statement of deficiencies in 2024, in which many of these cases were documented.
The federal notice from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services claimed the hospital “failed to ensure the services of the Regional Morgue Office complied with regulations and facility policies and procedures related to family notification of patient death, timely completion of death certificates, and processing of patient remains for a sample of three out of 61 hospital deceased patients.”
The notice added that 11 of these deceased patients had been dead since 2022, 15 since 2023 and 19 others since the first half of 2024.
Sacramento NBC TV affiliate KCRA’s Lysee Mitri reported that the station had located at least 180 cases, and at least one body was allegedly held at an off-location morgue for up to three and a half years. Mitri alleged that death certificates were not issued, families were not aware and the sheriff’s office spent resources looking for people who were already dead.
Mercy San Juan Medical Center, Mercy General Hospital, Mortuary Support Services of Northern California and their parent companies are defendants in four lawsuits following allegations of negligence toward the bodies of deceased patients, Broke Ass Stuart reported.
The latest of these lawsuits, submitted in January, was filed by the family of a Vietnam veteran and recipient of the National Defense Service Medal. They allege that although Charles Wesley Harvey died at Mercy San Juan Medical Center in the summer of 2022, his body had been rotting away in cold storage until they were notified in December 2025, according to the outlet.
“There’s no dignity in this,” Harvey’s son, Jacob, told KCRA 3 Investigates. “I don’t even know how they can use that name.”
In response, Dignity Health issued a late 2025 statement to the outlet, saying that their goal is to “provide the best care and support possible for patients and their families.” They declined to comment on the lawsuits. (RELATED: Police Charge Girls Basketball Coach With 32 Sex Crimes)
Dignity Health has maintained in court documents that death certificates were delayed because of COVID-19 and the subsequent quarantine, which resulted in a backlog of deceased patients being stored in the morgue, Broke Ass Stuart reported.
Harvey’s family are not the only ones sounding the alarm over the hospital’s alleged practices.
TOPSHOT – Body bags in the morgue at the Pima County medical examiner’s office containing the remains of the dead, including some of those who died trying to cross the US-Mexico border, at the medical excaminer’s office in Tucson, Arizona on October 13, 2016 where many remain yet to be identified, with the names John and Jane Doe on body bags in the morgue. (Photo by FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP via Getty Images)
A detective’s report alleged that the records of 39-year-old Michael Gray, who was admitted to Mercy San Juan Medical Center in July 2021, claimed he been treated and released. However, a death certificate says he died from a drug overdose, KCRA reported. His body allegedly remained in storage, and his family claims they were not informed of his death until around a month later. His mother filed a lawsuit in 2022 against Dignity Health and Mercy San Juan Medical Center, where she alleged that his remains were not autopsied or preserved.
Although 31-year-old Jessie Marie Peterson allegedly died at Mercy San Juan Medical Center following a diabetic episode in 2023, her mother claims the hospital said she had been discharged against medical advice, when in reality her corpse was transferred to off-site storage, according to KCRA and a lawsuit.
The Peterson family was allegedly not notified of her passing until a year later, and they had already filed a missing persons report. By the time they learned the truth, Peterson’s body was allegedly so decomposed that the family could not have an open casket funeral, the lawsuit claimed.
A 51-year-old, Tonya Walker, was admitted to Mercy General Hospital in 2023 for cardiac arrest, where she allegedly died. A death certificate was reportedly not issued until April 2024, and her family was not notified about where Walker was until May 2024, according to the lawsuit. By then, the Walker family had already issued a missing persons report and was only able to recognize the decomposed body by the tattoo on her arm, KRCA reported.
“Her body was in the worst condition you can imagine,” said her sister, Dalee Marez. “Her face looked like someone put battery acid all on her face.”
CommonSpirit Health and Dignity Health have not responded to the Daily Caller’s request to comment as of publication.