Michigan woman was pronounced dead but later woke up in a morgue

Timesha Bochamp from Southfield, Michigan, was pronounced dead. Paramedics assisted her for 30 minutes, when the woman could not be revived, she was declared dead. Writes about it The Washington Post.

Photo: Shutterstock

But the staff at the local funeral home were more than mildly shocked when a few hours later they saw her chest rise and fall from breathing.

As it turned out, Bochamp was alive.

The 20-year-old is now in critical condition in the hospital, Southfield doctors are struggling to figure out what went wrong, and the outraged Bochamp family has hired a lawyer.

“They were going to embalm her, which would have been very scary. If she hadn't opened her eyes, they would have started draining her blood,” said attorney Jeffrey Fieger.

For the Beauchamp family, the situation has been a heartbreaking experience, from the thought that the girl had died to watching her fight for her life in the hospital.

"Someone declared my baby dead and she wasn't even dead," said Erica Lattimore, the victim's mother.

Southfield paramedics arrived at the Beauchamp home early Sunday morning, August 23, after she had a heart attack. When resuscitation failed, the doctors contacted an ambulance doctor, who pronounced her dead.

The rescuers said in a statement that they notified the Oakland County Medical Examination of the girl's death. Soon after, Lattimore said she received a call.

"They said, 'Ma'am, she's dead,'" she said. "I told them, 'Are you absolutely, 100% sure she's dead?' They said, "Yes, ma'am."

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Beauchamp's body was taken to the James H. Cole Funeral Home in Detroit. More than an hour later, “staff confirmed she was breathing,” the funeral home said.

When Bochamp was taken to the hospital, her grieving mother received a call from the funeral home.

“They said, ‘Ma’am, your daughter is being taken to the hospital. She is breathing. She’s alive,” Lattimore said.

As of Monday evening, August 24, Bochamp was in critical condition in Detroit. Faiger's lawyer said the hours she spent without medical attention could seriously damage her chances of recovery.

"This delay could have affected Timesha's health for the rest of her life," he said.

The Southfield Rescue Service said the city and the Oakland County Medical Administration have launched an investigation into how Bochamp was declared dead on Sunday. In a statement, the department insisted that it "complied with all relevant protocols and procedures in this case."

But Feiger said that was inconsistent with his client's situation.

"It's one of people's worst nightmares, imagining that they called an ambulance and instead were sent to a funeral home in a body bag," Fieger said.

There are times when patients are mistakenly declared dead, but this is quite rare. In 2018 in South Africa, a car accident victim was taken to a morgue, where a medical examiner noticed the person was still breathing. Earlier that year, three doctors pronounced the death of a prisoner from Spain before he woke up in the morgue.

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