A woman is filing a claim with Sharp Memorial Hospital after staff at the hospital allegedly lost her late husband's wedding ring and other personal belongings.
Her husband, Daniel Lusteg, died at the hospital last month after a cycling accident.
“He had just left the house Saturday morning and I was getting ready for work. It’s something that he does all the time,” Rita Lusteg said. “He was training to do the bike race in Little Italy in November. He was training for that and literally within 5 minutes of him leaving, the accident happened.”
Daniel's bike collided with a car on Avocado Boulevard in Rancho San Diego, ejecting him off his bike.
Officers say Daniel died once he arrived at the hospital. A couple days later, the family received some of Daniel's belongings from CHP officers and that's when the family noticed something was wrong.
“His wedding ring is missing, his Apple watch, his clothing and shoes. We also can’t find his driver’s license or Kaiser card,” Rita said.
The family reached out to the hospital and staff told them that there are records that her husband's items were taken at the hospital and put in a bag but said the bag was nowhere to be found.
Local
A spokeswoman for Sharp Memorial Hospital sent us this statement:
“Federal privacy laws restrict hospitals from discussing patient information. However, in situations when personal items are reported missing, we conduct a thorough investigation to see if it’s possible to recover those items. We take every report of lost items seriously because we recognize and understand how precious these personal items are to families and loved ones.”
Rita will be filing a claim for her husband’s personal item losses but no price tag can return the memories attached to them.
“It's a symbol of our marriage. It’s something that I would have wanted to pass down to one of my boys and that’s no longer an option… [Sharp Memorial] are going to replace it monetarily but it’s sentimental,” Rita said.
