Inset: Salem Hospital in Salem, Ore., where Aleksandr Yeremeyev and Nataliya Yeremeyev say staff forced them to take their dead baby home. Background: A sign for Salem Hospital's emergency room, where Aleksandr Yeremeyev and Nataliya Yeremeyev allegedly walked through the lobby with their dead infant (KATU/YouTube).
An Oregon hospital forced a couple to walk through its emergency room lobby with their dead and "blue" baby after telling them they'd need to drive his corpse back home to Washington state — an approximately four-hour trip, the parents say in a lawsuit.
"When plaintiffs questioned how they were supposed to transport Michael's body, Salem Health defendants told plaintiffs that they should put Michael in his car seat," according to a civil complaint filed by parents Aleksandr and Nataliya Yeremeyev in Multnomah County. "Salem Health defendants failed to give plaintiffs a reasonable opportunity to process Michael's death, rest, consult one another, contact family members, or consider other available options for the care and transportation of Michael's remains."
The complaint, which was obtained by Law&Crime this week, states that workers at Salem Hospital claimed it "would be too expensive to transport Michael's remains using a local funeral home." The employees allegedly said the 9-month-old boy would be better off in his parents' private vehicle.
"Plaintiffs understood, based on the conduct and representations of the Salem Health defendants, that they had to leave the hospital promptly with Michael's body," the complaint says. "As a result, plaintiffs were forced to make decisions about Michael's remains while in acute grief and shock and before they had a meaningful opportunity to rest, consult with one another or other family members, obtain assistance, or consider how Michael's remains could be transported safely, lawfully, respectfully and with dignity."
Aleksandr Yeremeyev says that during the family's four-hour drive back home, he was "in a state of shock and grief" the entire time.
"[Aleksandr Yeremeyev] feared being stopped by police, being involved in a collision, and the ongoing deterioration of his son's body," the complaint states. "Plaintiff Nataliya and the couple's other children followed in a separate vehicle driven by a family member."
During the drive from Salem to Seattle, the parents had to contact local funeral homes to make arrangements for Michael's body. "Aleksandr had to clean bodily fluids from the back seat of his vehicle, which had seeped from Michael's body during the drive," the complaint says.
Aleksandr and Nataliya Yeremeyev are suing for $10 million.
They say their son spent much of his short life in hospitals after being born with Down syndrome and having "other significant health conditions" that required him to spend "the first six months of his life in a hospital rather than at home with his parents," according to the complaint.
Aleksandr and Nataliya Yeremeyev were on their first family outing with Michael in Oregon when he had to be rushed to the emergency room after his "breathing became shallow and rapid," the complaint says. He spent about two hours and 45 minutes at Salem Hospital before his death.
"Nataliya was forced to carry her deceased son's body, whose skin had turned blue, out of the hospital through the same emergency room lobby through which she had entered hours earlier," the complaint says.
Aleksandr and Nataliya Yeremeyev had asked hospital staff whether a local funeral home could transport Michael in a way that "comported with their religious beliefs and practices," but hospital staff allegedly refused. The couple also asked about getting paperwork pertaining to their son's death and transport to Seattle, but the staff said they "could not print the necessary paperwork because they did not have the correct paper or form," according to the complaint.
"[A doctor] provided plaintiffs only a handwritten note on a prescription pad stating that their child had died at the hospital," the complaint says.
When reached for comment this week, Salem Health said it does not comment on pending litigation.
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