A grandmother was mistakenly declared dead and placed in a freezer at a hospital in LA, California, only to be discovered alive days later. Maria de Jesus Arroyo suffered a cardiac arrest at her home in Boyle Heights on July 26, 2010. Doctors at White Memorial Medical Center pronounced her dead and placed her body in a refrigerated morgue. However, when mortuary staff retrieved her, they found her alive, face-down in an unzipped bag with facial injuries.
The family filed a lawsuit against the hospital, alleging that the 80-year-old woman was wrongly stored in a morgue freezer while still alive, leading to her eventual death from extreme cold. A pathologist hired by the family determined that Maria had been alive when placed in the freezer and had sustained injuries while attempting to escape the cold environment.
Initially filing a negligence claim in 2011, the family later pursued a wrongful death and medical malpractice lawsuit after receiving the pathologist’s report in 2012. The case was initially dismissed, citing statute-of-limitations, but was reinstated by California’s Second District Court of Appeal.
The court ruled that the family had no reason to believe Maria was alive when placed in the morgue, justifying the delayed wrongful-death claim. The hospital denied any wrongdoing, stating that they followed proper procedures and expressing confidence in prevailing in court.
The family’s attorney described the incident as a nightmare, questioning the unimaginable struggle of trying to escape a zippered bag. The Mirror has reached out to White Memorial Medical Center for comment.