Southfield woman found alive at funeral home after wrongfully being declared dead dies

Family of woman and City of Southfield issue statements in response to death

DETROIT – Timesha Beauchamp died at Children’s Hospital today after being wrongly declared dead eight weeks ago and then found alive a short time later inside a Detroit funeral home.

Family members say she died peacefully, but wrongly. The 20-year-old’s family believes that if the paramedics did their job correctly that day she would still be alive.

Read: ‘She isn’t coming back’: Southfield woman found alive at funeral home dies at hospital 8 weeks later

It started as a terrifying situation. Beauchamp’s who had cerebral palsy was found unconscious.

When Beauchamp’s mother called 911 she reported that her daughter had a lot of medical complications and was not responding to her.

That is when the Southfield paramedics arrived and tried to resuscitate her.

One medic twice failed to recognize Beauchamp was still alive. She was then improperly transported to the funeral home.

It was there someone noticed her gasping for air and she was rushed to the hospital.

The Beauchamp family released a statement that read, "Our whole family is devastated. This is the second time our beloved Timesha has been pronounced dead, but this time she isn’t coming back.”

The family attorney Geoffrey Fieger has filed a $50 million lawsuit against the paramedics saying Beauchamp died of massive brain damage suffered when Southfield paramedics wrongly declared her dead and failed to provide her oxygen.

“The City of Southfield sends its deepest sympathies to the Timesha Beauchamp family on her passing. Per city policy, no further comment can be made due to pending litigation,” said the city in a statement.

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


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Jason is Local 4’s utility infielder. In addition to anchoring the morning newscast, he often reports on a variety of stories from the tragic, like the shootings at Michigan State, to the off-beat, like great gas station food.

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