Trigger Warning: This article mentions disturbing details about a death.
What is the price of a crime or negligence? Why is the road to getting justice so brutal and twisted? It’s essential to reflect on these questions because the kind of stories we get read about isn’t just bone-chilling, but a question about where society is heading in terms of differentiating right and wrong.
This incident happened in August 2020. 20-year-old Timesha Beauchamp, who had cerebral palsy and was non-verbal, was wrongly declared dead by an emergency room doctor over the phone. The call was based on information provided by EMS personnel at the scene in Southfield, Michigan.
Cerebral palsy is a movement disorder that happens because of brain development, which can disrupt muscle and brain coordination. It is detected during the infant stages, and its stages can differ. Up to 80% of children with CP have communication impairments, with as many as 25% of children with CP being non-verbal. Deceased Timesha Beauchamp is one of them.
Beauchamp was transported to a funeral home in a body bag, but when the staff came to embalm her, they were stunned to find that she was still breathing and her eyes were open. Her family received a phone call informing them that while they were mourning, Timesha was alive. Now, five years after her daughter was nearly embalmed alive, Michigan mother Erica Lattimore is breaking her silence and demanding accountability.
Funeral Home Was Set to Embalm a ‘Dead’ Woman — Who Was Still Breathing. Here’s What Her Mom Now Says https://t.co/6D56qRsds8
— People (@people) October 17, 2025
According to PEOPLE, Lattimore is taking legal action against the Southfield Fire Department EMS team, alleging their negligence contributed to her daughter’s eventual death. Her attorneys claim that Timesha Beauchamp’s breathing was disrupted, which led to her death after two months.
“This is devastating to be told your child is dead, begin preparing for a funeral, and then find out she’s alive,” Lattimore said during an Oct. 14 press conference. Usually, several laws and punishments regarding malpractice or negligence exist in Michigan. Examples of malpractice include significant surgical errors, misdiagnoses or delayed diagnoses, Inadequate or inappropriate treatment and so on.
An attorney for the family of Timesha Beauchamp, found breathing at a Detroit funeral home after being declared dead, said Tuesday the 20-year-old was in a body bag for some two hours before it was opened and she was discovered to be alive. https://t.co/q3G8oAAPLV pic.twitter.com/PpVW2IjeHN
— ABC30 Fresno (@ABC30) August 26, 2020
In most cases, Michigan rules give you two years from the date of the malpractice to file a lawsuit. However, under the “discovery rule,” you may have up to six months from the time you discovered the incident. Hence, it will be a long and challenging ride for Timesha Beauchamp’s mother to get justice since it’s an old case as of 2025. Yet, Beauchamp will not give up on getting justice.
The family has been going through a terrible time ever since Timesha died. With an older brother and a twin brother, who has autism, they are channelizing their grief by spending sleepless nights in their sister’s room.
“I’m not giving up,” Lattimore said, per WDIV-TV. “I will go through the long haul, however long it takes. She lived 20 years. If it takes 20 more years for this to get heard in court and God gives me the breath, I’m there.”
“I had to be stronger for her two siblings, so all of my emotions and stuff, I kind of buried them …” Lattimore added.
