Parents Sue Oregon Hospital Over Handling of Deceased Son

Clear Facts

• Aleksandr and Nataliya Yeremeyev filed a $10 million lawsuit against Salem Health and Dr. Stefani Sorensen after their nearly 9-month-old son Michael died at the Oregon hospital in September 2024.
• The parents allege staff refused to contact a local funeral home and instead instructed them to transport Michael’s body in their private vehicle on a four-hour drive back to Seattle.
• Attorney Anna Bruckenhoefer stated the family sought dignified arrangements but felt they had no choice, leading to severe emotional distress for the father during the trip.

The lawsuit claims Salem Health Hospital staff in Oregon failed to provide respectful guidance when the Yeremeyev family needed help transporting their deceased infant son.

Michael Yeremeyev, born with Down syndrome, had received care at Seattle Children’s Hospital before his sudden death during a family visit to Salem, Oregon.

“His parents had made sure that he had received really excellent care. So, I think it was a really, really sad and just very tragic way for his life to end and for it to be so undignified right there at the end,” Anna Bruckenhoefer, the family’s attorney, said in a statement, according to Fox 13.

The family was attending a religious retreat when the infant developed breathing difficulties and was taken to the emergency room where he passed away.

Staff allegedly discouraged the parents from arranging funeral home transport, citing cost, and directed them to bring the body home themselves in their own car.

“They have repeatedly asked the hospital for assistance in helping them with what are the next steps,” Bruckenhoefer said. “This was all occurring overnight. They felt rushed that they had to make quick decisions and the hospital left them with no choice other than to take Michael’s body with them and head back to Seattle.”

Aleksandr Yeremeyev drove the four hours from Salem to Seattle with his son’s body in the backseat while his wife followed in a separate vehicle with their other children.

The lawsuit describes the father’s distress over possible police stops and the visible condition of the body during the trip, with bodily fluids later requiring cleaning from the car seat.

“It is legal in the state of Oregon and in the state of Washington to transport a deceased with the proper permits. But that is not what our clients wanted to do here. They were looking for help. They were looking for guidance. They were looking for the hospital to tell them, ‘These are the next steps,'” Bruckenhoefer said. “This is a hospital. It’s an emergency department. Unfortunately, death is something that they are accustomed to and that they deal with. They should have had procedures and protocols in place to assist the Yeremeyev’s while they were dealing with literally the worst moment of their lives. Instead, what they did is they just compounded their grief by essentially telling them that they were on their own in this.”

“No parents, no loved ones should ever be placed in the position that the Yeremeyev’s were placed in,” Bruckenhoefer added. “Just completely surprised that something like this would happen in 2026.”

The suit names Salem Health Hospitals & Clinics, Salem Health, Salem Emergency Physicians Service, and Dr. Sorensen as defendants, claiming negligence and breach of duty of care toward grieving parents.

The family seeks $10 million in damages for emotional distress and plans to add a request for punitive damages in an amended complaint.

Salem Health stated it followed hospital policy and Oregon law in consultation with local authorities and expressed respect for the family’s wishes during a difficult time.

“Care with respect is a guiding principle of clinical practice at Salem Hospital and remains central to how we support patients and families during some of life’s most difficult moments. We recognize the profound grief families experience following the loss of a loved one and treat every patient and family with empathy, dignity, and respect,” the hospital said in a statement.

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