*A 20-year-old woman with special needs was declared dead at her suburban Detroit home on Sunday only to be found alive several hours later at a funeral home as she was about to be embalmed.
Timesha Beauchamp reportedly had a heart attack early Sunday morning and was found unresponsive when paramedics with Southfield Fire Department arrived. They performed CPR and failed to revive her after performing life saving procedures for 30 minutes, CBS reports.
Beauchamp was declared dead after an ER physician reviewed her medical data. Her body was released directly to the family and Beauchamp was transported to James H Cole Home for Funerals in Detroit.
Over an hour later, staffers saw the woman was alive and called paramedics, who rushed her to the hospital where she is reportedly on a ventilator.
“Our staff confirmed she was breathing” and called an emergency medical crew, the funeral home said.
The family has lawyered up, and their attorney said Beauchamp was about to be embalmed when she opened her eyes.
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“They would have begun draining her blood to be very, very frank about it,” the family’s lawyer Geoffrey Fieger told WXYZ-TV. “The funeral home unzipping the body bag – literally – that’s what happened to Timesha, and seeing her alive with her eyes open.”
“After receiving clearance from the Oakland County Medical Examiner’s office she was transported to our funeral home,” the funeral home said in a statement to PEOPLE. “Upon her arrival at the funeral home, our staff confirmed she was breathing and called EMS.”
The fire department claims they followed “protocols and procedures” when handling Beauchamp.
“The Southfield Fire and Police Departments followed all appropriate city, county and state protocols and procedures in this case,” the department said. It said an investigation was underway and vowed “to provide as much transparency as possible.”
“My heart is so heavy. Someone pronounced my child dead, and she’s not even dead,” Beauchamp’s mother, Erica Lattimore, told WDIV-TV.
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