Secção infantil #9

US family watches over wrong person in hospital in tragic mixup

CHICAGO, June 1, 2006 (AFP) - In a tragic mixup, an American family watched over a car accident victim they thought was their daughter at a hospital for five weeks, only to learn the injured woman was someone else and that their daughter had died.
Laura Van Ryn, 22, and Whitney Cerak, 19, both blondes and both students at Taylor University in the central state of Indiana, were in the same car in a collision with a truck in April.
The accident left five people dead, including four students, and one seriously wounded person with head and neck injuries.
The Van Ryn family rushed to the hospital to see the person they thought was their daughter.
The mother, Lisa Van Ryn, even started an Internet blog -- lauravanryn.blogspot.com -- giving updates on the injured woman's progress.
"While certain things seem to be coming back to her, she still has times where she'll say things that don't make much sense," she wrote in an entry Monday.
According to the hospital, the patient kept correcting the Van Ryns, telling them her name was Whitney when they called her Laura.
This week, the family learned the tragic truth.
The families had agreed to check the women's dental records to remove any doubt.