Don Van RynCríticas

Although a true story it was not what i expected

In 2006, in Indiana a Taylor University van carrying five students and one staff member was hit by a semi that crossed the median and struck the van. The lone survivor was a female student. The survivor was identified as Laura Van Ryn. Laura was taken to a hospital with a broken collar bone, elbow and leg and severe head trauma. The Van Ryn family rushed to the hospital in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The family stood by Laura, while she endured physical therapy as well as, speech therapy. Her sister, Lisa learned how to perform simple procedures to make Laura more comfortable. Laura at first, was in a coma and as the weeks past she became more aware and talkative. Five weeks after the accident the physical therapist asked Laura to write her name. She wrote Whitney. The nurses assured the Van Ryn’s that the head trauma can cause the brain to misfire. The next day as Lisa was wheeling Laura down the hall she asked Laura her name and she said Whitney. She then asked for her last name and who her parents were. Lisa was convinced that for the last five weeks they had been loving, praying for mistakenly been identified as Laura Van Ryn. The Van Ryns were devastated and the Cereks were questioning how this happened as they drove to the hospital. Whitney was glad to see her family. The Van and taking care of Whitney Cerak, who had Ryns and the Cereks formed an unbreakable bond in caring for Whitney and both knowing what it was like to lose a child.

This book was definitely worth reading but left me with a strange feeling afterwards. A group of teens are in a serious car accident. One girl survives and ends up in a serious condition in hospital. Another of the girls dies. Somehow there is a mix-up and the wrong family is notified that their daughter is in the hospital. The family with the surviving daughter are notified mistakenly that their daughter has died and start the grieving process.

This is when the story becomes almost unbelievable....the family that attend the hospital don't realise that it is not their daughter/sister/relative that has survived. They recognise the girl in the hospital as their own family member even though she is not. It is only when the girl is finally able to start communicating that she writes her real name down and the truth is revealed...

I don't know whether the family just wanted their daughter to be alive so much that they ignored the signs or whether they didn't consider the alternative. Some extended family members did raise concerns and there were signs along the way that this was not their family member but they refused to accept them.

Both families are Christian and I think this helps them to deal with the situation when the truth is revealed. I just found the whole idea a bit creepy and more like something from a movie than real life. I guess I just found it hard to believe that two people could look so alike that their family members could get them confused even after a car accident. I found it even more odd when looking at the pictures of the two girls they don't look at all alike. It's just terrible for the family that thought they were at the bedside of their daughter when actually she had already died.

Incredible story, seemingly unbelievable...

This story was heart-breaking for both the families involved, and people may think I’m a horrible person for saying this - It really could have been told in a newspaper or magazine article. The pages necessary to fill out a book were Christian testimonial.

I love this story! Very inspirational.

Since this happened locally, it was of great interesting to our book discussion group. It's sad, joyous and an enjoyable read. Lots of emphasis on the power of prayer and of how God worked in the situation, so if that's not your think, you might want to skip it.

How on earth, in this day and age with forensic scientists and DNA and dental records etc, etc, could a situation like this happen? One person gets mistaken for another. That's all I'll say because I don't want to spoil the book for you if you're planning on reading it but I just shake my head.

The mistake has far-reaching consequences for both families involved and your heart just bleeds for them. Besides the emotional component, I didn't really find the book particularly well-written and they certainly pour on the religious doctrine. I don't mind that usually if it's sincere but when it takes place in a conversation between three people, you can't help but think 'how realistic is this? I don't talk like this!'.

This was a tear jerker, because of sadness and hope and joy. I cried for both. It still amazes me how such a mistake can be made. One of my favorite things about this book is how both families worked through each of the changes in their lives with their faith in a loving God. I would recommend this to anyone.

This was a tear jerker, because of sadness and hope and joy. I cried for both. It still amazes me how such a mistake can be made. One of my favorite things about this book is how both families worked through each of the changes in their lives with their faith in a loving God. I would recommend this to anyone.

Really enjoyed this. It made me realize a whole other type of book I like.

I could have easily given it a 1 star except for the fact that it was an intriguing story so I decided to give it 2 stars.
All the Bible talk got me annoyed and as someone else also mentioned, we still do not know how come they did not recognise there own daughter for 5 weeks!

Another thing I wonder about. How come Whitney has blocked the 5 weeks with the van Ryn's? So her memories after the accident only started when she finally got caught up with her family. That's quite telling. They also did not address that or what this mix up will have done to Whitney's healing process. I think more than 1/3rd if not half is talk about religion.

It took me a couple of hours to read this book where the central question was never answered. Two girls from good Christian families (much is made of this, but I can't see how the book would have been any different - other than thinner - if they'd been atheists) were in a car crash. One was killed and buried without her parents ever seeing her presumably-mangled body. The other lived but was in a coma. The two girls were the same age, both blue-eyed blonde types and from the pictures, quite similar-looking. There was even a picture of the girl in the hospital in a cervical collar with her hair scraped back showing her uninjured face very clearly. So the central question is, how come for five weeks the family sitting with the girl never realised it wasn't their daughter? The girl tried to tell them as soon as she could! Unless they were identical twins, this had to be people deceiving themselves, but who knows? That is the only point of the book and it is never addressed.

My blog post about this book is at this link.

You probably remember this story from the news: a van carrying a group of students from Taylor University is involved in a horrible crash with five dead. After 5 weeks, it is discovered that there had been an error in identification, and that Laura Van Ryn, whose family had been by her side 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, was actually Whitney Cerak.

Let that sink in a minute. The Cerak family had buried "Whitney" weeks earlier, and her mother, Colleen, gets a phone call at 2:00 a.m. saying that there is reason to believe her daughter is actually alive.

Let that sink in a minute.

Mistaken Identity was co-written by the Ceraks and the Van Ryn families, and it is just an incredible story. Had it not been true and this had been a novel, I'd have thought it implausible.

All the little questions I had during the intense media coverage of this a couple years ago were answered. Things like, "Okay, so they were both blond and attractive, but they don't look that much alike," and "How could a mother not know her own child?" There were, in fact, little things that in hindsight should have been utter giveaways, but when you don't have any reason to believe that it is not your daughter lying in that bed in a coma, you just accept as fluke-y, and the fact the Van Ryns did so is totally understandable.

All those details are fascinating -- the fact that Laura's sister thought it odd that none of the clothes she got at the hospital that her sister had been wearing were things she recognized; the difference in the teeth (not noticed for weeks because a respirator was in her mouth, and then dismissed as possibly related to the violence of the wreck knocking things askew); the fact that "Laura" had a pierced belly-button and her sister was sure she'd have told her if she'd done that.

It is only at the end of the grueling 5 weeks, when "Laura" begins talking that questions arise. The fact that she calls out names the Van Ryns don't recognize is explained away by the nurses as "her neurons are firing, but not firing correctly, so who knows where that name came from?" With no real reason to doubt that "Laura" isn't "Laura," I have a feeling I'd have let it go, too.

Mistaken Identity truly captures the roller-coaster of emotions of both these families, and what became their tender care of each other when the unimaginable mistake was discovered. What is most amazing is the very obvious comfort the faith of both these families brought them in their most devastating moments.

While I can't say this book is brilliantly written, it is raw, and it is real, and it is stunning.

I am not normally one ofr true stories but this one landed on my lap so I read it.
One of the problems with this style of book is the flat character, caused by the fact that the "characters" are real people who will read and have input into the final product. Much of this is overcome in this case by the addition of the extracts from letters and a blog which was created at the time. With all that I can complain I did find myself physically crying during reading this book.
The book tells the story but I find little hope in it. I guess that this style of book is simply not my normal choice. for those who like this sort of thing I would suggest that this is on of the better ones.
the basic story is of two girls involved in a car crash only one survived. The bodies were misidentified and the wrong name was given to the one who remainined. This led to one family believeing they had buried thier daughter while a different one belied that she was infact thier daughter. this in the end had to come to light

I was empowered reading the courage & faith of the two families involved in this tragedy. I loved the way the story was told, the family stayed true to themselves and God.

I have never read a book that evoked such emotions in me. It was a very moving read. Along with the rest of the nation, I followed the events as they unfolded...but this is in depth and very moving on the parts of both families involved. I would recommend this book, but make a suggestion that one should read it in private, it is very emotional.

This book is both sad and joyous. The story itself is quite unbelievable and that's what makes this book a page turner. I couldn't put it down and actually read it from cover to cover in less than 2 days. I felt it was a little too heavy on the Christian aspect however, it's clear that both families have a strong faith which was what got them through the tragedy and it's aftermath.

The book was a good and fast read however, I don't think I'll ever fully comprehend how the Van Ryns could spend every single day for 5 straight weeks with Whitney as she recovered thinking she was actually their daughter, Laura. I do see how it may have been difficult to know during the first few days when Whitney was kept in a low-light ICU setting but once she was moved to a regular room I feel like it should have been obvious. Both Whitney and Laura do have striking physical similarities, HOWEVER, I just can't fathom how a mother could NOT know her own child or a sibling could NOT know her own sister. I guess I will never understand that piece of this story.½

This true life tale had me mesmerized as I kept imagining the deep emotional trauma that was inflicted upon these families--and admiring the way they handled it with amazing faith and strength. It starts with the Cerak family--who thought their daughter Whitney had died in a tragic highway accident weeks earlier--getting a call in the middle of the night informing them of the unbelievable news that their daughter is in fact alive. In shock they receive the news that she was mistakenly identified as another passenger in the college van they were travelling in, Laura Van Ryn. As the Van Ryn and Cerak families then go back and tell the story of the weeks leading up to this event transpired I was kept on the edge of my seat with anticipation, knowing of the revelation that was to come. I also found the ways the families used their common faith in God to help them through these events extremely inspiring. Amazingly these events did not pull these two families apart, but brought them close together and together they have told a truly unique story which is a fascinating testament of the power of love and faith. I highly recommend this as a powerful book to read or listen to.

Top 10 book for me--maybe top 5. I've read it 2 times and listened to the book on tape once. These people are real. They have a Midwestern, could-be-my-neighbor feel about them. What happened to them is so beyond most of our ability to fathom, and their response to it could only be the result of supernatural intervention--that would be God.

The story is compelling. It was brilliant to start with the prologue that brings you to the hours leading up to the reunion of Whitney with her own family. This let the reader know that this book was not written for some kind of dramatic effect, but for the telling of a real story. The climax of the book is right at the beginning to allow the rest of the book to be about the details. Identifying Whitney as Laura (rather than the girl we thought was Laura) throughout the first part of the story really allowed the reader to live in the Van Ryans' world as much as possible. This was critical to allowing the reader be a part of the emotional ups and downs in this book.

As I read this story, I couldn't help but find myself imagining being in either families shoes(and praying that I wouldn't be). I found myself choked up repeatedly throughout this book and even shaking my head in disbelief even in the face of what I new what was coming.

Thank you Ceraks and Van Ryans for being faithful followers of Christ when it mattered and for being willing to share this story. You have somehow managed to convey an exceeding amount of humility and faith through this that can not be faked.

Inspiring. Very religious families. Kristin's pick. Wonderful

Wonderful book! I could not put it down! The families are an inspiration to all Christians and non-Christians alike.½

A heart warming story about 2 wonderful Christian families and their tremendous faith in God.

A very emotional and inspiring read, although there were times I was sidetracked by the religious references. I understand that both families used their faith to get them through this devastating time, but I didn't realize that was going to be the basis of the story when I started.

That said, though, this is a really good story. I recommend reading it along with Jacquelyn Mitchard's ALL WE KNOW OF HEAVEN, which, although not drawn specifically from this story, shares several similarities and is a wonderful book.

Reviewed by Jaglvr for TeensReadToo.com

Everyone saw the news splashed across the headlines or on the evening news reports. The wrong family was sitting beside a recovering girl in the hospital. How could it have happened? Read MISTAKEN IDENTITY to get the inside account from the two families that were involved in the unbelievable story.

The story seems straight out of the movies, almost too hard to fathom. But the Van Ryn and Cerak families, aided by Mark Tabb, tell the story of how Whitney and Laura were misidentified and two families dealt with both joy and sorrow with the help of their unerring faith in God.

Laura and Whitney were both students at Taylor University, a Christian college in Indiana. There were both in a school van on their way back to campus from a banquet with a few other people. A tractor trailer crossed the median and hit the side of the van, plowing it onto the side of the road. "Laura" was thrown 50-feet from the van. When rescue workers found her, a purse and ID nearby said that it was Laura Van Ryn. The photo on the ID looked enough like her. Thus began a five-week trial for both families.

The Cerak family received a call that Whitney had died in the accident. An employee from the university had identified her for the family. Colleen couldn't bring herself to look at the empty shell of what was left of Whitney, knowing in her heart that the true spirit of Whitney was now standing before God. Had Colleen gone and identified the body, would the error have been caught on the first night? No one knows.

The entire story is a bunch of "what ifs" by both families. Little things during "Laura's" recovery made family and friends question and wonder when "Laura" would return to her full self. But with the doctors and therapists constantly telling the Van Ryns that the neurons are firing but not necessarily connecting properly yet, no one gave it a serious second thought.

Only after "Laura" starts to come out of her coma and respond to therapy do the questions truly get raised. When a therapist asks "Laura" to write her name -- out came "W-H-I-T-N-E-Y." In the next few days, the pieces all come together, and a forensic dentist verifies the worst news for the Van Ryn family: this is not Laura after all.

What should be a story of loss for the Van Ryn family is a story of unerring faith. They are truly grateful for the time they spent with Whitney in the hospital. They are happy for the Ceraks' miracle and do not blame God.

The Cerak family went through grief but knew that Whitney had lived in God's love and was in a better place. They had sorrow, but knew that they would all see Whitney sometime in the future. When the call came that she may still be alive, Carly, Whitney's sister, would not believe it. Not until she saw with her own eyes did she believe the miracle that Whitney was still alive.

The story is so uplifting in the true belief both families have in God, that even in the time of sorrow they both experienced, the reader never once felt truly sad. The Van Ryn and Cerak families are both truly exceptional families. They are unwavering in their faith and love in God. They are both wonderful examples of a life lived to the fullest.