A Michigan appeals court has revived a lawsuit against Metro Detroit paramedics after a woman who was pronounced dead gasped with her eyes open as a body bag was unzipped at a funeral home.
A judge improperly dismissed the lawsuit in favor of Southfield first responders before the parties could conduct interviews and gather other evidence, a process known as discovery, the court ruled Thursday in a 3-0 vote.
Timesha Beauchamp, who had cerebral palsy, was struggling to breathe when her family called 911 in August 2020.
The medical team tried to revive her, but eventually called a doctor, who pronounced the 20-year-old dead without going to the house. Beauchamp was never taken to a hospital.
Later that day, an undertaker unzipped the body bag and discovered Beauchamp had her eyes open. She was rushed to the hospital, but died two months later.
Beauchamp’s family accused the medical team of gross negligence. Oakland County Judge Nanci Grant dismissed the lawsuit, saying Southfield’s employees had government immunity.
An attorney for the medical team, Kali Henderson, acknowledged that it “sounds really bad” to say there is no liability for the paramedics and emergency medical technicians.
“Where do we have the facts that anything they could have done would have changed her condition?” Henderson told the appeals court on June 12.
But Judge Brock Swartzle said attorneys for Beauchamp’s estate have not yet made statements or gathered more information.
“Discovery could show that they are not responsible for her death two months later,” he said of Beauchamp’s death. “Just focusing on the fact that she was in a body bag for a certain amount of time — that would scare, shock, humiliate anyone, right?”
“Certainly, Your Honor,” Henderson replied, “and I don’t disagree with that.”
The lawsuit now returns to Oakland County Superior Court.
Immediately after Beauchamp was found alive, the Southfield fire chief said it was a possible case of “Lazarus syndrome,” a reference to people who return to life without help after failed resuscitation attempts.
