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Bliss: Whitney's story a true miracle
By Brian Bliss
Tuesday, April 1, 2008 10:30 AM EDT
As I observe the recent national attention being given to the Mistaken Identity story, and delve deeper into the depths of what happened during those fateful 5 weeks, I suddenly realize that it is a story that truly defines the term "Miracle".
"Miracle" is a word that has been used fairly often to describe various occurrences, such as the "Miracle on Ice", a story about a young amateur U.S.A. hockey team defying the odds at the 1980 Winter Olympics to defeat the Goliath that was the U.S.S.R. While this is indeed an example that is wonderful in its own right, I believe it somewhat pales in comparison to this phenomenal story.
For those of you who do not know, this tragic night took place nearly two years ago, on April 26, 2006. A passenger van carrying 5 students and 1 teacher from the small Christian college of Taylor University was sideswiped by a semi that had crossed the median line of a freeway in Indiana. Only pictures can explain the devastating effects of the crash, as all but one of the passengers in the van had died. The only survivor was believed to be Laura Van Ryn of Caledonia, Michigan, who was 22 years old at the time.
Laura was thrown 50 feet from the van upon impact, and was barely breathing when the police arrived at the scene. She was immediately transported to a local hospital in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where she was pronounced to be in a coma and placed in critical condition. For 5 weeks, Laura's family stood by her bedside every second of every day, praying with the Lord that their beloved daughter and sister be ok. But as they continued to care for her and talk with her, they noticed strange differences that they had not seen before, such as the shape of her teeth, or the piercing of her naval. Over time these uncharacteristic signs of Laura began to add up.
They were suddenly faced with a devastating truth, the daughter that had been under their unwavering care for the past 5 weeks may not be their own. Meanwhile, back up north in Gaylord, Michigan, the family of one of the victims, Whitney Cerak, had held a funeral for their daughter, and had just begun to proceed with their lives. But then came the call that changed their lives for the second time in just over a month. At 2:00 in the morning, Colleen Cerak picked up the phone and heard voices that were all to familiar to her.
"Miracle" is a word that has been used fairly often to describe various occurrences, such as the "Miracle on Ice", a story about a young amateur U.S.A. hockey team defying the odds at the 1980 Winter Olympics to defeat the Goliath that was the U.S.S.R. While this is indeed an example that is wonderful in its own right, I believe it somewhat pales in comparison to this phenomenal story.
For those of you who do not know, this tragic night took place nearly two years ago, on April 26, 2006. A passenger van carrying 5 students and 1 teacher from the small Christian college of Taylor University was sideswiped by a semi that had crossed the median line of a freeway in Indiana. Only pictures can explain the devastating effects of the crash, as all but one of the passengers in the van had died. The only survivor was believed to be Laura Van Ryn of Caledonia, Michigan, who was 22 years old at the time.
Laura was thrown 50 feet from the van upon impact, and was barely breathing when the police arrived at the scene. She was immediately transported to a local hospital in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where she was pronounced to be in a coma and placed in critical condition. For 5 weeks, Laura's family stood by her bedside every second of every day, praying with the Lord that their beloved daughter and sister be ok. But as they continued to care for her and talk with her, they noticed strange differences that they had not seen before, such as the shape of her teeth, or the piercing of her naval. Over time these uncharacteristic signs of Laura began to add up.
They were suddenly faced with a devastating truth, the daughter that had been under their unwavering care for the past 5 weeks may not be their own. Meanwhile, back up north in Gaylord, Michigan, the family of one of the victims, Whitney Cerak, had held a funeral for their daughter, and had just begun to proceed with their lives. But then came the call that changed their lives for the second time in just over a month. At 2:00 in the morning, Colleen Cerak picked up the phone and heard voices that were all to familiar to her.
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The coroner and chaplain who had called the Cerak house to inform them that their daughter was one of the victims in a deadly crash nearly 5 weeks ago, were on the phone once again, but this time they different news. "We have reason to belive that your daughter is alive," they said to Colleen. So once again, Colleen had to call her husband Newell, who was with the Gaylord Evangelical Free church youth group in New York, and relay the message that was given to her. After retrieving Whitney's dental records, Colleen and her older daughter Carly made the three and a half hour trip down to Grand Rapids. Upon arrival, the hospital employees took them into the room that had occupied Laura Van Ryn for the past 5 weeks. The reaction was so powerful and so overwhelming, Colleen and Carly just sat and cried with the young woman they now realized to be their daughter, Whitney.
Since that wonderful night when the Cerak family was reunited with their daughter after believing her to be dead, Whitney has made a full recovery, which is truly remarkable considering the drastic physical effects the crash had imposed upon her, including some brain damage. The story has received national attention and just recently, both the Cerak and Van Ryn families appeared on the Today Show and Dateline on NBC with Matt Lauer. Also, a book was recently released profiling the story of these two families called Mistaken Identity.
This story has led me to consider some things about the presence of God in my life as well as the lives of many others. I believe that the reason these two families were able to cope with such an experience is because of their strong relationships with God and Jesus Christ. Both families claim that their faith in God is what pushed them through those terrible times, which encourages me to strenghthen my relationship with the Lord our Savior. This unbelievable story about two families, one survivor, and an unwavering belief in God is a perfect example of a "Miracle". It has also shown me what a strong presence the Lord has in not only the lives of the Ceraks and Van Ryns, but in everyone throughout the world.
Brian Bliss is a junior at Gaylord High School. He will write a weekly blog at www.heraldtimes.com.
Since that wonderful night when the Cerak family was reunited with their daughter after believing her to be dead, Whitney has made a full recovery, which is truly remarkable considering the drastic physical effects the crash had imposed upon her, including some brain damage. The story has received national attention and just recently, both the Cerak and Van Ryn families appeared on the Today Show and Dateline on NBC with Matt Lauer. Also, a book was recently released profiling the story of these two families called Mistaken Identity.
This story has led me to consider some things about the presence of God in my life as well as the lives of many others. I believe that the reason these two families were able to cope with such an experience is because of their strong relationships with God and Jesus Christ. Both families claim that their faith in God is what pushed them through those terrible times, which encourages me to strenghthen my relationship with the Lord our Savior. This unbelievable story about two families, one survivor, and an unwavering belief in God is a perfect example of a "Miracle". It has also shown me what a strong presence the Lord has in not only the lives of the Ceraks and Van Ryns, but in everyone throughout the world.
Brian Bliss is a junior at Gaylord High School. He will write a weekly blog at www.heraldtimes.com.
14 comment(s)
come on people wrote on Apr 9, 2008 8:12 PM:
" rationalist,
It is very obvious that the miracle was for the Cerak family. Nice job Mr. Bliss. "
It is very obvious that the miracle was for the Cerak family. Nice job Mr. Bliss. "
rationalist wrote on Apr 9, 2008 5:59 PM:
" It's great that Ms. Cerak lived through the accident, but to call an incident that leaves 5 people dead and only 1 alive a "miracle" sets a pretty low threashold for what constitutes a "miracle". Ask the 5 other families if god performed a miracle that day. There were no miracles, just bad driving and poor procedures by the medical examiner. "
MikeHeath wrote on Apr 8, 2008 8:52 PM:
" Mr. Bliss,
I would greatly appreciate your helping me with the definition of "miracle" that you are using so I better understand your claim. Do you use the word miracle to define “that which causes wonder” given Webster’s first definition for the term? Or are you making a claim for Webster’s second definition of the term, “ . . . a deviation from the known laws of nature; a supernatural event, or one transcending the ordinary laws by which the universe is governed.”
Given your specificity that this particular story “defines the term” and given that there are a couple of terms for the word, I’m not sure whether you are making a claim for the first or second term.
I would also respectfully request a response on the one issue that’s bothered me in my casual following of this story, a concern I have given my background working in repetitive manufacturing environments which focus intently on obtaining zero defects systems and processes. When it was discovered that the two young ladies were misidentified, there was a preponderance of rage and story-time in the media against the person who identified, incorrectly, who had died (I believe it was a county coroner). As the event played out, the media provided little attention as to how the admitting hospital could have had such poor processes that misidentified Ms. Cerak as Ms. Van Ryn, instead focusing its scorn on the coroner.
If I were a journalist on this story, I would have instead focused my moral outrage at the admitting hospital for one simple reason. You can’t help someone who has died; but misidentifying a living person as another person puts the misidentified person at additional risk beyond the norm, e.g., if they were allergic to certain drugs. So I never understood the attention by the media who focused on misidentifying a person who had died while almost ignoring the fact that the admitting hospital’s poor identification practice put Ms. Cerak at additional risk.
Therefore, did the book spend any time discussing the corrective and preventative actions the hospital and emergency care workers installed after this incident to eradicate or severely decrease the probability of misidentifying a person who is alive and being treated? Did the book discuss whether other emergency and health care providers not involved in this incident across the country install more robust processes to either eradicate or severely limit the probability of this recurrence? Your report back on this subject would be most appreciated.
Given our ability to identify people by their DNA that approaches near certainty, I would hope there is now a process in play at least within America that kick-starts a DNA ID process if certain conditions are met, conditions similar to what Ms. Cerak faced as she was admitted into the hospital. If not, than we as a country are not leveraging this tragedy to prevent future tragedies where misidentification could very well lead to another victims’ death.
Respectfully yours,
Michael Heath
"
I would greatly appreciate your helping me with the definition of "miracle" that you are using so I better understand your claim. Do you use the word miracle to define “that which causes wonder” given Webster’s first definition for the term? Or are you making a claim for Webster’s second definition of the term, “ . . . a deviation from the known laws of nature; a supernatural event, or one transcending the ordinary laws by which the universe is governed.”
Given your specificity that this particular story “defines the term” and given that there are a couple of terms for the word, I’m not sure whether you are making a claim for the first or second term.
I would also respectfully request a response on the one issue that’s bothered me in my casual following of this story, a concern I have given my background working in repetitive manufacturing environments which focus intently on obtaining zero defects systems and processes. When it was discovered that the two young ladies were misidentified, there was a preponderance of rage and story-time in the media against the person who identified, incorrectly, who had died (I believe it was a county coroner). As the event played out, the media provided little attention as to how the admitting hospital could have had such poor processes that misidentified Ms. Cerak as Ms. Van Ryn, instead focusing its scorn on the coroner.
If I were a journalist on this story, I would have instead focused my moral outrage at the admitting hospital for one simple reason. You can’t help someone who has died; but misidentifying a living person as another person puts the misidentified person at additional risk beyond the norm, e.g., if they were allergic to certain drugs. So I never understood the attention by the media who focused on misidentifying a person who had died while almost ignoring the fact that the admitting hospital’s poor identification practice put Ms. Cerak at additional risk.
Therefore, did the book spend any time discussing the corrective and preventative actions the hospital and emergency care workers installed after this incident to eradicate or severely decrease the probability of misidentifying a person who is alive and being treated? Did the book discuss whether other emergency and health care providers not involved in this incident across the country install more robust processes to either eradicate or severely limit the probability of this recurrence? Your report back on this subject would be most appreciated.
Given our ability to identify people by their DNA that approaches near certainty, I would hope there is now a process in play at least within America that kick-starts a DNA ID process if certain conditions are met, conditions similar to what Ms. Cerak faced as she was admitted into the hospital. If not, than we as a country are not leveraging this tragedy to prevent future tragedies where misidentification could very well lead to another victims’ death.
Respectfully yours,
Michael Heath
"
chloekit wrote on Apr 8, 2008 12:53 PM:
" Bliss is right on the whole story is a miracle. I just finished read the book Mistaken Identity and I could not put it down. So far 3 of my family members are waiting to read it. The book is more than a story of tragedy and hope it is a story of faith and how it sustains us though everything in life. It shows us God at work, and even though we don't understand why things happen his will is at work and we have to trust in him. Mother Teresa once said I know that God won't give me anything I can't handle, I just wish He wouldn't trust so much. I think that says it all. "
bearfeeder wrote on Apr 6, 2008 8:35 PM:
" I was very impressed with your blog! I feel that this story should be repeated and often! What a fantastic miracle for our times when miracles go so often unnoticed! All I can say is keep up the good work, you have a faithful reader here! "
opsryushi wrote on Apr 6, 2008 3:20 AM:
" From a resident web junkie - Think of a blog as more of an online journal you intend to share with the world, rather than an informational writing assignment. I found your post to be dry, repetitive (we've heard the story lots of times already), and overall rather distant. Consider a more open, informal tone. Otherwise, good writing. Now, if only the HT would hire some people who could actually write to fill its paper circulation positions... "
Boxermom48 wrote on Apr 4, 2008 12:41 PM:
" Brian-you did a great job on this article. Very impressive. Looking forward to more. "
eee wrote on Apr 3, 2008 6:59 PM:
" Bliss,
I agree that this instance is a miracle! God choreographed every step and I also believe He chose these two families to demonstrate what true faith in Jesus Christ will do because they are straightforward about our Lord. Ceraks live their faith every day in Gaylord and to our kids as Colleen teaches them and Newell pastors them in the youth group. Now they can touch the world for Christ. I am very grateful for the examples they have been to my kids. I heard that all the proceeds of the book were going to a camp. "
I agree that this instance is a miracle! God choreographed every step and I also believe He chose these two families to demonstrate what true faith in Jesus Christ will do because they are straightforward about our Lord. Ceraks live their faith every day in Gaylord and to our kids as Colleen teaches them and Newell pastors them in the youth group. Now they can touch the world for Christ. I am very grateful for the examples they have been to my kids. I heard that all the proceeds of the book were going to a camp. "
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stewart wrote on Apr 13, 2008 9:59 AM: