Timesha Beauchamp Detroit special needs woman declared dead found still alive at James H. Cole Funeral Home as family lawyer says woman continues to cling to life at hospital.
A 20 year old Michigan special needs woman who was declared dead and ‘delivered’ to a funeral home was discovered still alive by ‘shocked’ mortuary workers when they discovered her eyes were open.
Timesha Beauchamp according to her family lawyer, Geoffrey Fieger is clinging to life on a ventilator at Detroit hospital, more than 24 hours after she was mistakenly pronounced dead.
The special needs woman was sent to the James H. Cole Funeral Home by her family after Beauchamp was found unresponsive in her apartment and declared dead after paramedics failed to resuscitate her, ABC News reported.
It was soon after that mortuary workers made the startling discovery — that Beauchamp was still breathing.
‘While it is our practice not to comment on open investigations, we can confirm that on Sunday, August 23, 2020, we received a call to pick up a Southfield woman who was deceased,’ the funeral home said in a statement to ABC.
Are EMS culpable?
‘Upon arrival at the funeral home, our staff confirmed she was breathing and called EMS.’
Beauchamp had been found in her home in the Detroit suburb of Southfield around 7:30 a.m. Sunday, Southfield Fire Chief Johnny Menifee told ABC.
‘The paramedics performed CPS and other life-reviving methods for 30 minutes,’ the chief said. ‘Given medical readings and the condition of the patient, it was determined at that time that she did not have signs of life.’
ClickOnDetroit cited unnamed sources claiming that Southfield police officers observed Beauchamp move and breathe, and summoned the EMTs back, but the paramedics allegedly claimed those were just side effects of the medication given to her.
But later that day, funeral officials called the fire department to tell them she was alive according to the Oakland County Medical Examiner’s Office.
‘They did the normal medical interventions and that’s when the funeral home told them that she was to be embalmed and all that,’ Detroit Fire Department Deputy Commissioner Dave Fornell told ABC. ‘It kind of surprised us. We couldn’t believe it.’
‘I talked to our medical people and they said she was breathing, she had a decent heart rate, she had decent blood-oxygen,’ Fornell said. ‘But she was definitely alive when we got there.’
Hour and half delay to hospital could prove fatal
Beauchamp was transported to Sinai-Grace Hospital in Detroit, where the woman continued to cling to life.
WXYZ reported that after determining that Beauchamp was dead, the EMTs followed standard operating procedure and contacted an emergency room physician at an area hospital, who reviewed the patient’s medical data and declared her deceased.
The Southfield paramedics then called the Oakland County Medical Examiner’s Office, saying that an official death declaration has been made for the patient and there was no suspicion of foul play.
Based on the information from the fire department and the ER doctor, a forensic pathologist released the body, which was still at home, directly to her family to make funeral arrangements.
Speaking to ClickOnDetroit, the mother said her family, including her daughter’s twin brother and an older brother, told of being devastated by the ordeal.
‘Somebody pronounced my child dead and she’s not even dead,’ said the mother. ‘She’s in the hospital.’
She told the news outlet that she got the heartbreaking news that her daughter was ‘gone’ at home.
‘I told them, “Are you absolutely, 100 per cent sure that she’s gone?” They said, “Yes, ma’am, she’s gone,”‘ she recounted.
However, several hours later, she got a call from the funeral home, saying her daughter was alive, breathing and on her way to the hospital.
The family attorney says the 1.5-hour delay Beauchamp encountered by going to the funeral home instead of going to the hospital may be critical to her recovery.
“What did this delay do in terms of Timesha’s health for the rest of her life,” he said.
speculated that the hour-and-a-half delay in Beauchamp’s care caused by her trip to the funeral home could prove critical to her chances for a recovery.
