Parents say hospital told them to drive 4 hours with their dead infant’s body in backseat to get his remains home

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A Seattle couple whose 9-month-old son died unexpectedly during a family trip to Oregon claims hospital staff instructed them to drive their child’s corpse back home in their own car, either strapped into a baby seat or laid flat in the back for the four-hour trip, because having the remains transported there by a local funeral home “would be too expensive,” according to a $10 million lawsuit reviewed by The Independent.

Aleksander and Nataliya Yeremeyev “expressed concerns about Michael’s body becoming stiff during the long drive from Salem to Seattle,” and requested an extra blanket to cover his body, the pair’s complaint states.

“Throughout the drive, Aleksandr was in a state of shock and grief and feared being stopped by police, being involved in a collision, and the ongoing deterioration of his son’s body,” it says.

On the way, Nataliya and Aleksandr contacted funeral homes in Seattle to make arrangements for Michael’s body. After they arrived, the complaint continues, Aleksandr “had to clean bodily fluids from the back seat of his vehicle, which had seeped from Michael’s body during the drive.”

Attorney Anna Brunkenhoefer, who is representing the Yeremeyevs, described the circumstances of the case as “shocking.”

Salem Hospital, she told The Independent, “really needed to do better.”

“They needed to have better procedures and protocols in place,” Brunkenhoefer said. “This should have been something that they were able to handle, and it's extremely disconcerting that the family had to experience that on top of losing their son.”

Michael was born with Down syndrome and suffered from “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,” the complaint states.

The Yeremeyevs had “spent so much of his life making sure that he received the best care, so this was a really sad way for his life to end,” Brunkenhoefer said, “without the dignity and respect that they had made sure he [previously] received.”

“Salem Health does not comment on pending litigation,” a hospital spokesperson said.

Portland, Oregon, NBC affiliate KGW News was the first to report on the case.

Michael Yeremeyev was born January 10, 2024, according to the family’s complaint, which was filed September 18 in Multnomah County, Oregon Circuit Court. Following a half-year in the hospital, the Yeremeyevs took Michael on his first family outing that September, traveling to a Christian retreat in Salem, the complaint states.

“On September 22, 2024, at approximately 12:05 a.m., after Michael’s breathing became shallow and rapid, his father took Michael to the emergency department at… Salem Hospital,” the complaint says. “His mother joined them a short while later.”

At 2:44 a.m. that same morning, Michael died “[d]espite lifesaving efforts by medical staff,” according to the complaint.

Hospital workers directed Nataliya and Aleksandr not to go near their son’s body until the medical examiner could arrive, the complaint states. After “a substantial delay,” it says the two were informed that the medical examiner would not be coming.

The complaint does not provide a cause of death or what led up to it; Brunkenhoefer did not respond to a follow-up inquiry.

At a crossroads, the complaint says the Yeremeyevs “repeatedly asked” the hospital about how to get their son’s body home to Seattle, specifically requesting that an area funeral home handle the process “in a respectful and dignified manner.” But, the complaint alleges, hospital staff said it would be too expensive to use a local funeral home, and “instead told the distraught [couple] to transport their son’s body home with them in their private vehicle.”

After dismissing the hospital’s suggestion to strap Michael’s corpse into his car seat, the Yeremeyevs took their advice to lay it down in the back while Aleksandr drove. Nataliya and the couple’s other children followed in a separate vehicle driven by a relative, the complaint states.

Aleksandr had no official paperwork for the dead body in the backseat, just a handwritten note from Michael’s doctor on a prescription pad saying that he had in fact expired at the hospital, the complaint contends. All the way to Seattle, it says Aleksandr was afraid of being pulled over, or getting into an accident, and having to try and explain the situation to authorities.

Aleksandr and Nataliya made arrangements during the drive with a Seattle funeral home, and went straight there, according to the complaint. However, Michael’s body had continued to decay in transit, and leaked fluids onto the seats, which Aleksandr was later forced to clean up, the complaint states.

“We’re anxious to get into discovery and see what policies and procedures [Salem Hospital] did have,” Brunkenhoefer told The Independent.

By bringing this lawsuit, the Yeremeyevs hope to ensure “this never happens to anyone else,” co-counsel Thomas D’Amore said.

The couple, whose suit names Salem Hospital and one of its emergency room doctors as defendants, say they have suffered “extreme emotional distress and psychological injuries.” They are seeking noneconomic damages of about $10 million, with the exact amount to be determined by a jury.