A Detroit suburb has agreed to pay $3.25 million to settle a lawsuit stemming from a 2020 case in which a young woman was mistakenly declared dead by an emergency physician, and was later found alive at a funeral home, according to the family’s lawyer on Tuesday.
The case concerned Timesha Beauchamp, who was 20 and living with her family in Southfield, Mich., northwest of Detroit, when she began experiencing breathing problems early one morning in August 2020 and her family called 911.
Paramedics arrived and found Ms. Beauchamp was not breathing. They tried to revive her for about 30 minutes, then contacted an emergency department physician by phone. Based on information provided by the paramedics, the physician pronounced her dead, according to the local fire department.
Later that day, Ms. Beauchamp’s body was transported to the James H. Cole Home for Funerals in Detroit. An employee who was preparing to embalm her noticed that Ms. Beauchamp was breathing and had her eyes open. Emergency responders then took her to a hospital, where doctors placed her on a ventilator. She died at the Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit, a family lawyer said at the time.
Ms. Beauchamp suffered severe hypoxic brain damage, caused by a prolonged lack of oxygen to the brain, according to her lawyer, Steven Hurbis, of Fieger Law in Southfield, Mich. She died about eight weeks later in October 2020.
“We recognize that no resolution can undo the profound tragedy that occurred on Aug. 23, 2020, or ease the pain experienced by Ms. Beauchamp’s family,” Southfield said in a statement, according to The Associated Press. “This case involved extraordinarily difficult circumstances that arose in the complex world of a global pandemic.”
Mr. Hurbis said in a telephone interview that the settlement resolved years of litigation over what happened that day. He said no outcome could undo the harm caused by the mistaken declaration of death.
“Finally, Timesha and her family were able to get some of the justice that they deserve,” he said.
Ms. Beauchamp’s family declined to comment through their lawyer. Requests for comment from the Southfield mayor’s office and Oakland County Medical Control Authority, which oversees medical services in that part of Michigan, were not immediately answered.
Mark Walker is a Times reporter who covers breaking news and culture.
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