Southfield, Michigan, has agreed to settle a lawsuit brought by the family of a young woman who was declared dead at home in 2020 but later gasped for air when her body bag was unzipped at a funeral home, according to the Associated Press.
The settlement amount was $3.25 million, the report said. The case stemmed from allegations that Southfield paramedics handled the response to a 911 call involving Timesha Beauchamp, who was 20 and had cerebral palsy.
Southfield, in a statement, said it recognized “that no resolution can undo the profound tragedy that occurred on August 23, 2020, or ease the pain experienced by Ms. Beauchamp’s family,” and added that “This case involved extraordinarily difficult circumstances that arose in the complex world of a global pandemic.”
According to the AP’s account, Beauchamp was struggling to breathe when her family called 911 on Aug. 23, 2020. A medical crew tried to resuscitate her and consulted a doctor, who declared her dead over the phone without going to the home.
Later that day, a funeral home opened the body bag and found Beauchamp gasping for air. She was taken to a hospital after that, but the report said she never recovered and died two months later.
Steven Hurbis, an attorney for Beauchamp’s family, said Tuesday that “She was put in a situation she never should have been in,” and added that medical professionals told him Beauchamp would have survived if she had been taken immediately to a hospital from her home.
Southfield had fought the lawsuit and persuaded a judge to dismiss it based on governmental immunity. The Michigan Court of Appeals overturned that dismissal in 2024, according to the report.
The AP also said Southfield’s fire chief had suggested Beauchamp’s situation might have been a case of “Lazarus syndrome,” a term associated with people who appear to come back to life without assistance after resuscitation attempts fail.