‘She’s still breathing': Hear 911 call from moment workers realized Southfield woman declared dead was alive

Timesha Beauchamp found breathing hours after being pronounced dead

SOUTHFIELD, Mich. – Local 4 has obtained the 911 call from the moment workers at a funeral home realized a Southfield girl who had been declared dead was still alive and breathing.

UPDATE: Southfield woman found alive at funeral home dies at hospital 8 weeks later

“I picked a deceased patient up from the house -- the mother told me she was deceased," a worker from the Cole Funeral Home in Detroit told the dispatcher. "She’s still breathing.”

The man told officials the girl’s eyes were open and she was clearly still alive.

READ: 4 first responders placed on leave after Southfield woman declared dead, later found alive

“The person’s supposed to be deceased," he said. "(She’s) still breathing out of her mouth and her stomach.

“I’ve been doing this 32 years, and I’ve never had a situation like this before.”

You can listen to the full 911 call below.

Timesha Beauchamp, 20, was pronounced dead the morning of Aug. 23 after paramedics with the Southfield Fire Department said she went into cardiac arrest and was showing no signs of life.

She had been living with cerebral palsy her entire life, and on Sunday morning, her mother, Erica Lattimore, noticed her daughter was having great difficulty breathing, so she called authorities.

READ: How Southfield mother found out her daughter, declared dead hours before, was still alive

Beauchamp was officially declared dead by an emergency department physician who received medical information from the Southfield Fire Department at the scene, officials said.

“Somebody pronounced my child dead and she’s not even dead,” Lattimore said. “She’s in the hospital.”

Lattimore said she was told Beauchamp had died only to find out hours later from the Cole Funeral Home in Detroit that her daughter was still alive in a body bag.

“They said, ‘Ma’am, your daughter is on her way to Sinai Grace Hospital. She is breathing. She is alive,’” she said. “This devastated my life. Then she just told me, ‘No, ma’am, your daughter is breathing.’ I said, ‘What do you mean? What do you mean she’s breathing?’ She said, ‘Ma’am, she’s in the hospital.’”

Lattimore hired Attorney Geoffrey Fieger to push for answers.

“Maybe (she) was ill to the point where she needed medical treatment, needed transportation to a hospital, but not transportation to a funeral home,” Fieger said.

Southfield firefighters are undergoing an internal investigation along with the Oakland County Medical Control Authority. They’re trying to find out why medics found no signs of life when Beauchamp was still alive.

Sources told the Local 4 Defenders that investigators are asking if the medics did exactly what they said they did, and whether the heart monitor had a catastrophic failure.

Fieger said Beauchamp’s Godmother, a nurse, alerted medics and police officers that she could see Beauchamp breathing.

“She told the paramedics, and the paramedics told her that the movements were involuntary and were the results of the medication,” Fieger said.


About the Authors:

Derick is the Lead Digital Editor for ClickOnDetroit and has been with Local 4 News since April 2013. Derick specializes in breaking news, crime and local sports.