Crash victim's parents held vigil at bedside of wrong boy

Bettina and Gustav Remschnig thought their prayers had been answered when the comatose teenager, at whose hospital bed the couple had staged a four-month vigil, started to come round.
Every day since the fateful telephone call from an Austrian hospital, informing them that their son Thomas's car had smashed into a wall, Mr Remschnig, a 41-year-old businessman, and his 38-year-old wife, had sat beside the badly injured teenager, willing him to live.

"I washed him, I fed him, did everything I could for him, I was with him every day since the accident," said Mrs Remschnig. "I was mopping his fevered brow and talking to him, holding his hand and encouraging him to live. Sometimes he called out 'Mum' and I was so happy."

But when the teenager awoke earlier this month, the couple realised something was badly wrong. Instead of talking in his native German, he began speaking Serbo-Croat and, instead of answering to the name Thomas, he indicated that he was called Enis.

Austrian police are investigating the case and may file criminal charges against hospital staff for negligence. Enis Memic is still recovering in Austria and will eventually face police questions over the accident. The body of Thomas was exhumed and reburied, last week, in his home town of Treffelsdorf in southern Austria.