NEWSWoman Found Alive After Being Presumed Dead Is Now Actually Dead, Family Suing City
A young Detroit-area woman who was accidentally declared dead in August, then found alive in a funeral home, has passed away for real in a local hospital, according to a lawyer for her family.
Timesha Beauchamp, 20, who had cerebral palsy and a history of breathing issues related to her condition, displayed breathing problems causing her family to call 911 on August 23. Emergency medical technicians and paramedics arrived to their house, followed by one first responder reporting by phone to hospital medical staff that Beauchamp had been unresponsive for half an hour and showed no signs of life.
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A doctor, who was not on the scene, pronounced Beauchamp dead based on this information, despite family members allegedly doubting she had passed away and reportedly insisting they still saw indications of breathing and a pulse.
The woman was taken to James H. Cole Home for Funerals, where a staffer about to prepare the body was startled to discover that she was actually alive.
“They were about to embalm her, which is most frightening, had she not had her eyes open,“ explained the family lawyer to the Associated Press. “The funeral home unzipping the body bag — literally — that’s what happened to Timesha, and seeing her alive with her eyes open.”
The family has since filed a multi-million-dollar lawsuit against the four first responders on the scene and the city of Southfield, claiming that Beauchamp suffered brain damage from lack of oxygen during the several-hours period she was presumed dead and zipped in the enclosed body bag.
It has been reported that Beauchamp's family sued the Southfield EMS Paramedics for $50 million. She died on Sunday, October 18, at Detroit's Children's Hospital.
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"This is the second time our beloved Timesha has been pronounced dead, but this time she isn’t coming back," the family said in a statement.
The city is investigating the matter, with its fire chief surmising that Beauchamp might have experienced “Lazarus syndrome,” which refers to a condition in which people come back to life without assistance after all attempts to resuscitate have failed.
