'Preventable tragedy': Inverness family sues Peace Corps over daughter's malaria death

Serving in the Peace Corps had been Bernice Heiderman's dream since high school.

When the Northwest Suburban resident finally got accepted during her senior year of college, she wept with joy at the news, her family says.

But just 18 months into her tour, the 24-year-old volunteer from Inverness was dead in a spartan hotel room in the East African island nation of Comoros, the victim of what her family calls a "preventable tragedy."

They say Heiderman endured a painful death from malaria that went undiagnosed by a local Peace Corps physician as well by a medical officer in Washington, even though the disease is endemic in Comoros.

On Friday, the family filed a wrongful-death lawsuit in federal court in Chicago against the U.S. government.

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