Tragedy as family in hospital vigil for wrong woman
Thursday Jun 1 12:33 AEST
A family that stood vigil for weeks over a severely injured woman they thought was their daughter realised she was really her classmate and that their own child was dead and already buried.
The misidentification was corrected overnight through dental records that showed Whitney Cerak, 18, and not Laura VanRyn, 22, was the lone survivor of the April 26 wreck that killed three other Taylor University students and a school employee.
"Our hearts are aching as we have learned that the young woman we have been taking care of over the past five weeks has not been our dear Laura, but instead a fellow Taylor student of hers, Whitney Cerak," the VanRyn family wrote in note posted on an Internet blog they created to track their daughter's progress.
"There was a misidentification made at the time of the accident and it is uncanny the resemblance that these two women share," the note said, citing the two women had similar blonde hair, builds and features.
It was unclear who made the original error. Cerak had suffered severe injuries to her face and was comatose.
"Over the past couple of days, as Whitney had been becoming more aware of her surroundings, she'd been saying and doing some things that made us question whether or not she was Laura," the VanRyns said.
The VanRyns asked the hospital to make sure, and the error was discovered, said spokesman Bruce Rossman for the Spectrum Health Rehabilitation Center.
Cerak's family, who held a funeral after the accident, arrived at the hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where the families met for the first time, exchanging roles and emotions.
Thursday Jun 1 12:33 AEST
A family that stood vigil for weeks over a severely injured woman they thought was their daughter realised she was really her classmate and that their own child was dead and already buried.
The misidentification was corrected overnight through dental records that showed Whitney Cerak, 18, and not Laura VanRyn, 22, was the lone survivor of the April 26 wreck that killed three other Taylor University students and a school employee.
"Our hearts are aching as we have learned that the young woman we have been taking care of over the past five weeks has not been our dear Laura, but instead a fellow Taylor student of hers, Whitney Cerak," the VanRyn family wrote in note posted on an Internet blog they created to track their daughter's progress.
"There was a misidentification made at the time of the accident and it is uncanny the resemblance that these two women share," the note said, citing the two women had similar blonde hair, builds and features.
It was unclear who made the original error. Cerak had suffered severe injuries to her face and was comatose.
"Over the past couple of days, as Whitney had been becoming more aware of her surroundings, she'd been saying and doing some things that made us question whether or not she was Laura," the VanRyns said.
The VanRyns asked the hospital to make sure, and the error was discovered, said spokesman Bruce Rossman for the Spectrum Health Rehabilitation Center.
Cerak's family, who held a funeral after the accident, arrived at the hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where the families met for the first time, exchanging roles and emotions.
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