quote: The VanRyn family learned Wednesday that the patient they cared for and prayed for the past five weeks is not their Laura.
Laura, it turns out, is dead.
The young woman in the hospital bed, who suffered head injuries in an April 26 highway accident that killed five people, is Whitney Cerak.
Whitney's family thought they buried her weeks ago.
This is so sad.
This is the blog that Laura's family used to chart Whitney's progress, although they thought she was Laura. The latest update was done by Whitney's family.
That is horrible. My heart goes out to BOTH families, but in particular the family who thought she was their daughter.
Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
Something similar happened in the town where I grew up. There was a crash and one of the bodies was mistakenly cremated, which was not the done thing in their family or religion, I'm not sure which. Anyway, it was an insult added to injury. Or more like a cremation added to being killed by a drunk driver.
Posted by Theaca (Member # 8325) on :
Isn't it incredible? I think the news stories I read said that the girl was initially treated at the hospital I work at.
I spoke to a man this morning who works with the coroner's office here in Allen County (does fire investigative work) and he was telling me that the coroner here would NEVER have been capable of making this mistake. He insists on DNA and extensive testing on every victim, no matter how obvious the identity appears. Apparently the mistake was made at the coroner's office in Grant county.
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
Where are you from, Theaca? I am only asking because that blog mentioned parents and family from a city named Gaylord, and there is a Gaylord near where my parents live half the year, in northern MI.
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
I live in Fort Wayne, In. Taylor University is in Upland, In. The girls were both from Michigan, I believe.
Posted by Wendybird (Member # 84) on :
This is just so sad. I have tremendous admiration for the strength of these families and the love that radiates from their blog posts.
Posted by kwsni (Member # 1831) on :
Kiwi, I think the Gaylord you're thinking of is the right one. This has been all over the news around here for a couple days. I feel awful for those families.
Ni!
Posted by Bella Bee (Member # 7027) on :
Speaking as someone who looks spookily similar to a lot of other people I have known - to the extent that my mother once confused me with another girl (we even shared same birthday! And were born in the same place, as it turned out - but no, she wasn't my long lost evil twin), I find this story terrifying.
Those poor people.
Posted by MyrddinFyre (Member # 2576) on :
Wow, I can't even imagine how it would feel to be either of those families.
Posted by Theca (Member # 1629) on :
Some more minor thoughts:
I wonder what the Ceraks have done with Whitney's room, belongings, and clothing the past five weeks. They could have given most everything away to charity by now.
I read that the roommate was questioning the identity two weeks ago and there was an investigation started at that time by the school? I wonder what happened there. Since the parents and boyfriend just noticed the problems this week that seems rather interesting.
Kwea, why is there a biggrin in your post? Please tell me that's a slip of the mouse.
Posted by dkw (Member # 3264) on :
How terrifying that must have been for Whitney as she woke up and slowly recovered with people she didn't recognize calling her by the wrong name and trying to get her to remember things about someone else's life. She must have thought she was going crazy.
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