A 20-year-old woman with special needs was found alive at a funeral home after being declared dead by paramedics.
The Michigan woman, Timesha Beauchamp, has special needs and is currently on a ventilator at a Detroit hospital, a day after she was mistakenly pronounced dead.
The incident started on Sunday morning when Beauchamp was found unresponsive at her home in Detroit suburb of Southfield.
Her concerned family contacted emergency services and paramedics from the Southfield Fire Department and the first responders performed CPR. Others tried ‘life reviving methods’ for half an hour.
“Given medical readings and the condition of the patient, it was determined at that time that she did not have signs of life,” the statement from Southfield Fire Chief Johnny Meniffee read.
According to ClickOnDetroit, Southfield police officers found the patient breathe and move, and immediately contacted the EMTs back. However, paramedics allegedly claimed those were only side effects of the medicine given to Beauchamp.
In an interview with WXYZ, attorney Geoffrey Fieger said that the patient’s godmother told the paramedics that she detected a pulse.
William Mullan, an Oakland County spokesperson, told Daily Mail that the EMTs followed standard operating procedure and called an ER physician who declared the woman deceased.
The paramedics then contacted the Oakland County Medical Examiner’s office and said that an official death declaration was made without any suspicion of foul play.
The body was then taken to James H Cole Home for Funerals where it was discovered that Beauchamp was still breathing and alive.
Fieger told WXYZ: “They were about to embalm her which is most frightening had she not had her eyes open. They would have begun draining her blood, to be very, very frank about it.”
The 20-year-old is currently on a ventilator in a hospital.
Her devastated mother told ClickOnDetroit: “Somebody pronounced my child dead and she’s not even dead. She’s in the hospital.”
She added: “I told them, ‘Are you absolutely, 100 per cent sure that she’s gone’” They said, ‘Yes, ma’am, she’s gone.’”
A few hours later, the heartbroken mother received a call from the funeral home, telling her that her daughter was alive and on the way to a hospital.
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