Oregon hospital staff made Seattle family drive dead son home, lawsuit says

Ann Duan, The Seattle Times on Sep 23, 2026

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A Seattle couple is suing an Oregon hospital and doctor after they were allegedly told to transport their deceased infant’s body to Seattle using their personal vehicle.

Aleksandr and Nataliya Yeremeyev’s complaint filed this month claims Salem Health failed to make proper arrangements for their 8-month-old son’s body when he died. The couple is suing for $10 million.

The Yeremeyevs’ son was born with Down syndrome and other “significant health conditions,” which required him to spend the first six months of his life in a hospital. The family was attending a Christian retreat in Salem in September 2024, when they noticed his breathing become shallow and rapid.

He was suffering from an acute illness, according to attorneys. The parents took him to Salem Health, where he died early Sept. 22.

The lawsuit alleges hospital staff told the parents to stay away from their son’s body until a medical examiner arrived. After a substantial delay, the parents were informed a medical examiner would not be coming.

After they repeatedly asked about how they would bring their son’s body home, hospital staff directed the parents to transport the deceased infant back to Seattle in their own car.

“When Plaintiffs expressed concerns about (the child’s) body becoming stiff during the long drive from Salem to Seattle, Salem Health Defendants then told Paintiffs they should just lay (him) flat on the back seat,” according to the lawsuit.

They asked to make arrangements for a funeral home to transport their son, but the lawsuit said staff told the parents that would be “too expensive.”

In the lawsuit, the parents claimed the hospital did not offer to keep the body in a morgue while the family could take time to process their grief and plan how they would bring him back to Seattle.

Hospital staff reportedly told the parents they could not print necessary paperwork. A handwritten note on a prescription pad was all the Yeremeyevs had to document their son’s death, upon leaving the hospital.

Court documents said Nataliya Yeremeyev had to bring her deceased son, whose skin had turned blue, to their private vehicle where they laid him flat across the back seat. Aleksandr Yeremeyev drove around four hours to Seattle in “a state of shock and grief,” fearing the deterioration of his son’s body and the possibility of getting into a collision or being stopped by police.

The mother and their other children were driven back to Seattle by another family member. During the drive, the parents contacted Seattle funeral homes to make arrangements. The lawsuit said Aleksandr had to clean fluids that seeped from his son’s body from the car, when they returned to Seattle.

Salem Health did not immediately respond to inquiries on the complaint.

After speaking to medical experts, attorney Anna Brunkenhoefer of the D’Amore Law Group representing the family said: “No one had ever heard of anything like this ever happening before.”

Attorneys told The Seattle Times they plan to seek punitive damages at trial. The plaintiffs intend to find out what policies and procedures are in place at Salem Health.

“This cannot be the first time that a person has died that was from another town,” attorney Tom D’Amore said. “Why were these particular people treated in the manner that they were?”

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