How did no one notice the wrong boy was alive for 3 weeks

[NewYearss]

So in Yorkshire the police have mixed up two boys, one who died in a crash and one on life support. They told the wrong family their boy had died and the other that their son was still alive.
I just don’t understand how this wasn’t picked up for three weeks. Surely the family visiting the wrong boy in hospital would notice straight away?

I think people are underestimating the power of hope. They wanted their son to be alive.

This is so tragic for all involved. How heartbreaking.

But as someone who has visited a close relative and sat by their bedside for weeks post car crash with them on intensive care I can understand how it happens. I thought my mother wasn’t my mother. She looked so ‘odd’ and it wasn’t just the injuries and tubes. Everything was like a waxen swollen skin of a different colour. With injuries bedding and bandaging there wasn’t enough ‘structural’ person to tell. For the first few weeks we only knew it was Mum because of the rings they gave us which were handed to us in a bag by a nurse and the fact she was the only one injured to that degree.

its really hard to explain - they certainly don’t look or smell like the person you know. Mum also had a craniotomy so even a hair style can’t help because her head was shaved and then bandages and drains coming out of the skull. And when she did start making sounds it definitely didn’t sound like ‘her’ that took another few months.

what’s more confusing is the identification of the deceased boy. I’m guessing he was too disfigured for standard identification. But then why weren’t dental records obtained?

What a desperately sad situation for both families. This article from the Times suggests that in addition to someone being arrested for dangerous driving, there has been an arrest for perverting the course of justice. That sounds as if someone may have deliberately identified the wrong individuals, which would be an even greater cruelty.

Police told wrong family their son had died in car crash

https://www.thetimes.com/article/7d761af8-0f64-4ed8-a6d5-102fe78a54c2?shareToken=43a45968eef4dd1bd082f54caa35f9c3

I would not be surprised if the family visiting the boy in hospital did know, unless he was completely covered in bandages which is possible, but either the police had to wait for formal identification of one or both boys, or there was a serious internal failing. As the police have referred themselves to the watchdog, it seems like the latter

I have read that book, too. A very emotional read.

Also unless you’ve been there, you can’t comprehend the trauma that someone is living through at the bedside. EVERYTHING is overwhelming. You’ve not slept for days and weeks. You’ve got a literal system that notifies every medic under the sun when you arrive in the ICU and they all want to talk to you and you’re having to navigate new vocabulary, different approaches, advocating, making life or death decisions. You don’t often get to sit right by the bedside because of the equipment. For about 10 days I could just about reach a 2 inch section of my Mum’s forearm to touch. I couldn’t see her legs or hands.

Quite!! Some of these posts are awful.

This whole story is terrible. My heart breaks for both families, the tragedy they have endured and the road they have yet to travel.

Some of the comments here are a bit absurd - I haven't seen any suggestion that the boy's family didn't know what their son looked like, or couldn't be arsed visiting him, so I think we can rule out assumptions that they didn't give enough of a shit to notice.

So that leaves the more likely explanations:
-They had similar features to begin with
-Age meant few objective distinguishing marks like tattoos and scars
-Very serious injuries including possibly facial, swelling, extensive bruising plus equipment (which can cover eyes and mouth for example)
-Underfunded and undertrained police force not aware of potential sources of error
-Possible stuff going on that led the police down the wrong path, such as switching seats, possessions and so on

The key information will be how the police made the identification in the first place.

I get that to a degree but I would be able to identify my children by their hands,feet, moles ,eyelashes etc
I can only presume there is a lot more to this than has been reported.
A very tragic situation.

My sister was found by a neighbour who identified her. I’d met this man twice and my parents had never met him. I tried so hard, but no further identification was required (not that I wanted to see her really, but someone who properly knew her should have!) I even asked the undertaker if I could brush her hair, with her covered up. I thought this would help me but he advised no. 18 months on I still don’t know if it’s really her 😔

I would smugly be able to do lots of things while sitting in the comfort of my home , imagining them.

The reality would likely be very different.

I think you underestimate what bodies can look like after trauma. When I broke my wrist my entire arm, fingers to shoulder, was swollen, bruised and discoloured for 2-3 weeks, and that was an isolated injury. A very serious car crash will disfigure every part of the body through swelling, bruising and direct injury.

But you wouldn’t be able to see things like moles or the shape of their feet. Sadly I think you’re underestimating how little of a person’s body you can actually see in these situations. The skin and tissues swell and the colour and texture changes significantly

Of course 🙄🙄

2 teens involved in a car crash. One is alive, the other dead.
Youre told your dc is the one alive. You’re going to demand proof it’s your ds.

Not thank the lucky stars that he is alive (because the only other possibility is that your dc is the one who is dead). Not try to work through the overwhelmed, grief, gratefulness, fear of the future (Unconscious for 2 weeks means that teen WAS badly injured). Not trying to work through the guilt you’re happy this is him on the bed and not the other teen.

Yes you’d put your very rational hat on to demand his identity is properly checked just in case something really unusual like a mix of identities has happened….

Dental records aren't going to help if both boys have severe facial injuries.

This has happened before. Just had a Google but here's the gist:
Pics might take a while to be approved.

I really don’t think the issue lies with identifying the hospitalised boy, it’s errors with fully being sure of the deceased boy’s identity.

There's a lot of talk about dental records here. My DD is 15 and has only had x-rays for the first time this year, despite regular check ups. So I'm not convinced that dental records really exist for teenagers in a useful way for identification.

And thats wo talking about the injuries themselves.

As individual people can make mistakes, systems must be robust. The system failed here. Glad the police have referred themselves to the watchdog.

This is such nonsense. In that situation, likely whisked to hospital by police, in shock, willing your loved one survives surgeries, completely bamboozled by the environment and the systems, exhausted, overwhelmed and traumatised - you are not in a position to be making that rational thought let alone making demands of medical staff who are trying to keep your loved one alive from one minute to the next.

There are some shocking reactions on this thread, but I think most of them are coming from people not really understanding what catastrophic injuries like that actually look like. They underestimate how disfiguring swelling alone can be, and how much time it takes to die down.

If you're struggling to picture it, and don't want to confront anything too gory, just look up pictures of women who have had allergic reactions to hair dye. You'll get the idea.

This happened in an episode of 911 (American fire thingy) but they figured it out in a matter of days
I remember thinking firstly how awful and secondly it could never happen IRL

Did the family go to the hospital tk see their son.
If they did that they would have know if it was their child.

Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry.