Tragic Mistakes

I'm not sure if u guys have heard this story, but its awful. Apparently 5 kids from an Indiana University were on a road trip to Michigan & got in a car accident. 4 of them died and one, Laura, was in a coma for the last 5 weeks. A few days ago, however, they found out that the girl in the coma was NOT Laura. Her name is Whitney. Laura is dead. Whitney's family unknowningly buried her over a month ago.

When I heard this story, I thought I was watching soapnet or something! I mean, seriously, how could this happen? The 2 girls do look very much a like: similar build, same hair color, etc. But how could Laura's family sat next to this comatose girl for 5 weeks and not know it wasn't her?? I don't know if there were severe injuries to her face, and she probably had a lot of tubes and such attached to her. It's just so creepy! Not that I am critical of either family...just in total shock. This story really rocked me. All day long it's been sort of haunting me. How these 2 familes must feel. One who had a funeral and has been mourning the loss of their daughter, sister, friend, etc. And the other who has been caring for & nurturing a stranger while their daughter was dead and buried. I just can't imagine it.

The worst thing I've found about all this is that Laura's family has been keeping a blog. They had been posting about her progress for the last month as they sat with her in the hospital. Only it wasn't her. And all those memories were with someone else's child. Here is the post after they learned the truth: http://lauravanryn.blogspot.com/2006/05/wednesday-may-31-2006-100-pm.html

Clearly these people are religious, and their beliefs seem to be giving them comfort. Which, at this point, anything that gives them comfort is fine with me! (Like, even if they turned to heroin, I'd be like "Rock on with the heroin!" ya know?) How on earth does anyone deal with this?? This is even worse than the mistake that was made with the death of the miners in WV last year, ya know? That only went on for a few hours. This went on for weeks! And the way the mix up was discovered was that when the girl started coming out of the coma & speaking, she didn't seem like Laura. Of course, eventually she said she was Whitney...but before that they checked dental records. Personally, I'm gonna get a tatoo! I'm scared the death of needles...but this is definitely worse.

I know this has been kind of rambling, but this story just wont get out of my mind, ya know? Feel free to leave random, astonished comments.