. >> reporter: 19-year-old abby guerra and 21-year-old marlena cantu were driving home from disneylandicle flipped over. >> the past week has been a horrific experience. and clearly, multiple mistakes have been made. >> reporter: the family of marlena cantu was initially told their daughter was alive, but in critical condition, with brain and back injuries. they rallied to her hospital bedside in phoenix all last week. >> this last week at the hospital, with constant vigil around the clock, was very difficult. >> reporter: the family of abby guerra was told their daughter was dead. friends and family flew to phoenix this weekend for the funeral. then shocking news. the authorities had made a mistake. somehow they got these two women confused and realized it only saturday, six days after the accident. >> you find yourself thinking, how can this be? we have dna testing, we have excellent dental records on many people, we have x-rays and all kinds of records kept on people. >> reporter: marlena cantu was 2 inches taller, had her wisdom teeth, and crucially, a large scar on her abdomen whe

today, after a week of grieving, abby guerra's family has their daughter back, though still in criticaldition. >> it's a miracle but we feel angry because we mourned all week. >> reporter: marlena cantu's family is just beginning to mourn. today, dental records positively identified her remains a week after she died. david wright, abc news, washington. >>> when we return, the dam that stood for nearly a century, ledpled after one watery day. er one watery day. [ male announcer ] ziploc presents ziplogic. ♪ 4 lbs of sirloin, but only wrap half, i'll just throw it out anyway. [ male announcer ] we throw out over $500 in food every year. help save more of it with new ziploc freezer bags featuring the smartzip seal. edge-to-edge protection you can hear. now that's ziplogic. ziploc freezer bags with the new smartzip seal. get ziploc. and get more out of it. now try ziploc containers with the smartsnap seal. [ female announcer ] sc johnson. a family company. ♪ [ upbeat instrumental ] [ rattling ] [ gasps ] [ rattling ] [ laughing ] [ announcer ] close enough just isn't good enough. - if your

teammates were getting ready to attend her funeral when they got the news. >> to me the news that abby guerraad not died, while surprising, was something that made me feel like this is great, there's a chance. >> this isn't first time this type of heartbreaking mix-up has made headlines. in 2006 whitney serac and her friend laura van ryn were in an accident and their identities were mixed up. for weeks the van ryns thought they were sitting by laura's bedside only to find out it was whitney serac and their doubt her not made it. the seracs have talked about mixed emotions that they have even though whitney survived. >> still a bitter sweet moment for me because i know when we get together with them we have our daughter and they don't have their doubter. >> right now marlena can't urkts's family has to go through the painful process of learning to live without her. all they want is an answer about how this mix-up occurred >> you can't explain. i mean, there's so much grief. >> can't even begin to imagine. >>> the maricopa county medical examiner's office says case overload and a delay with the

california with four friends from her phoenix high school including her best friend, 19-year-old abby guerraeekend cantu was killed and guerra survived when their suv crashed after a tire blew out as they were driving back to arizona. somehow their identities were mixed up and the cantu family spent a week at the hospital thinking their daughter was badly injured but alive. >> we were there all week, day and night. i think i slept eight hours last week. >> reporter: according to the family, dental records finally showed that the young woman who survived was abby guerra. her family and friends thought she was dead. >> i was shocked to hear about it. >> reporter: guerra is a member of the women's soccer team at evansville university. her teammates were getting ready to attend her funeral when they got the news. >> to me, the news that abby guerra had not died was, while surprising, something that made me feel like this is great. there's a chance. >> reporter: this isn't the first time this type of heart-breaking mix-up has made headlines n. 2006 whitney cerak and her friend laura van rhine wer

a funeral service for abby guerra will not take place., a week after she was declared dead in a car accident, it turns out she's alive. >> but in a tragic twist, the family of marlena cantu are suffering in grief. as it turns out, marlena is the one who actually died in the crash-bill weir has the story. >> reporter: the college sophomore and four friends were in a car accident. the family of abby was told she died at the scene. the funeral was scheduled. but stunning news, abby is alive and in the hospital. her family and friends held a car wash to pay for funeral expenses. but now that money will be used for her medical care. >> we're all angry at the situation. i mean, this is a week that we could have been at her side and telling her to fight. maybe it would have given her more strength. >> reporter: abby remains in very critical officials. officials had to use dental records to positivitily identify her. bill weir, abc news. >> marlena's family is now making funeral plans instead of praying for her quick recovery. >>> investigators i

back in phoenix, abby guerra is in critical condition this morning, as her family has moved from planningside. >> we need everybody's thoughts and prayers is what we need. >> yesterday, guerra's family and friends held a fund-raiser. it was originally thought to help cover the funeral expenses for abby. now the proceeds will go toward her medical care and will unfortunately pay for marlena's funeral instead. >> what is being done about this? >> reportedly, there was a lot of chaos. the injuries were so bad, they said it was hard to tell who was who. the problem here, officials notified the families before the medical office could confirm the identity. the medical examiner's afs blames a backlog of patients and a shortage of doctors. >> the medical examiner did not want to contact the family. it was authorities on the scene for some reason -- >> do for some reason, they went ahead before they were supposed to. and now we're here. >> an astonishing and heart breaking story. >>> we're going to turn now to the search for the portland boy missing for almost two months. responding to any new ti

more than a week ago 21-year-old marlena cantu and her best friend 19-year-old abby guerra were in a land to their hometown outside of phoenix. cantu died and guerra survived but somehow medical and emergency crews confused the girls' identities. a mistake that was not cleared up for nearly a week. >> i would like to take this opportunity on behalf of the arizona department of public safety to offer our collective sincere apologies. >> reporter: officials with the department of public safety say right after the accident they spent five hours trying to determine the girls' identities. hospital officials added, it was a trauma situation and it was not he's iscy to identify guerra because she was badly injured. >> we interviewed family member that evening and al qaeda for any discernible visible information that could help us make that positive identification. from the information that was provided us on that evening, we believed the patient was marlena cantu. >> reporter: complicating matters, the county medical examiner says there was a backlog of cases so the autopsy on what turned ou

they were told that 19-year-old abby guerra is alive a week after she was declared dead.he college sophomore and four friends were driving back after a visit to disneyland when they had a terrible accident. while two girls were badly injured, abby's family was told she die at td at the scene. the funeral was scheduled for tomorrow, and soccer teammates from her college made plans to attend. but yesterday came the stunning news. abby is alive, and in the hospital. her family and friends held a car wash today to pay for funeral expenses, but now that money will be used for her medical care. >> we're all angry at the situation. i mean -- this is a week that, you know, we could have been by her side and telling her to fight and maybe it would have given her more strength. >> reporter: abby remains in very critical condition. officials had to use dental records to positively identify her. >>> to sports now, and in paris, 27-year-old alberto contador of spain won the tour de france for the third time, and did it without taking a single stage of this year's race. lance armstrong

it wrong when they originally told family members that marlena cantu lived and her best friend, abby guerrawed family members that evening and asked for any discernible visual information that could help us make that positive identification. >> reporter: the hospital claims the young women's severe injuries led to the mistake, but monday, frank cantu, the father of the deceased, said officials actually mixed up the taem members. >> instead of telling abby's parents, okay, your daughter is upstairs, they told me my daughter is upstairs. >> reporter: for six days, frank cantu sat praying at what he thought was his daughter's bedside. only to find out she never survived the crash. >> and they said i think there's been a tragic error. >> reporter: it was marlena's best friend, abby guerra, who had survived. though her parents were told she died. meanwhile, frank's daughter, marlena, had been tagged jane dough, unidentified because of a backlog of bodies. suddenly the cantus are making funeral plans for the daughter who was supposed to be getting back to college. >> a book had come in she ordere

her family to be dead is actually alive after a case of shocking mistaken identity. 19-year-old abby guerra'samily was told she was killed in a car accident last week. it turns out she survived and is still in the hospital in critical condition. officials apparently confused her with another victim from the same accident. >>> north korea is threatening to retaliate with nuclear weapons against the u.s. and south korea this morning as those two countries carry on their largest war games in years off the coast of the korean peninsula. the "uss george washington" is leading the maneuvers with ships. >>> former dictator fidel castro is reclaiming the spotlight. the 83-year-old made his first reported appearance outside of cuba's capital city since intestinal surgery forced him to give up power four years ago. castro wore an olive green shirt similar to the military uniform he wore for nearly a half a century. >>> and finally, given the current heat wave, check this out. the world's first doggie ice cream truck. the k99 van was in london's regent park serving up soy ice cream to these canine custo

abby guerra had survived the crash. it was marlena cantu who had died. on and has endured multiple brain surgeries. the cantus are now left to mourn the loss of marlena. >> it's comforting to know that she's not suffering. she didn't suffer. it was a mistake. it was a mistake they shouldn't have made. evidently the person that, you know, that shouldn't have gotten confused, got confused. >> reporter: how could a tragic mistake have happened in the first place? >> at the time, we were acting on the best information. >> reporter: law enforcement and hospital officials claim they used information from the families to identify the patient and pointed to the girl's severe injury as a factor for the mix-up as well. >> sometimes the severity of the situation can impact the patient's visual appearance so dramatically that it is -- they are almost hard to recognize. >> reporter: and the two did look similar. that's marlena on the left and abby on the right. but things just didn't add up. marlena was two inches taller than abby. she still had her wisdom teeth, abby

. >> reporter: hospital and law enforcement officials apologized monday for the tragic mixup of abby guerra and marlena cantu. the college sophomores were in a car accident last week. guerra survived. cantu did not. the families were given bad information. the cantus, thinking their daughter was alive. the guerras, planning a funeral. >> everyone in the room now knows that was incorrect. >> reporter: while the cantus are left to mourn their loss, they say they at least have some closure. >> it's comforting to know that she's not suffering. >> reporter: but how could such a tragic mistake have happened in the first place? one explanation? hospital officials pointed their severe injuries as a factor. >> sometimes the severity of the situation can impact the patient's visual appearance so dramatically, that it is -- they are almost hard to recognize. >> reporter: and the two did look similar. that's marlena on the left. abby on the right. but things didn't add up. marlena was two inches taller than abby. she had her wisdom teeth, and abby didn't. and marlena had a scar on her abdomen from an a

the guerra family was told abby died at the scene.dent, they learned there had been a mixup. that it was 21-year-old marlena cantu who died, and abby was alive and in critical condition in a phoenix hospital. >> i mean, you're ecstatic for one. it's a miracle. but in the same, you feel angry because we've mourned all week. >> reporter: friends of marlena cantu say her family is devastated to learn she is dead. after standing over the bed of a badly injured girl who turned out to be someone else's child. >> disgusted that it happened this way. i'm disgusted it happened at all, but especially this week. >> reporter: over the week enthe guerra family held a car wash to raise money for abby's funeral. now that money will be used to pay her medical expenses and to contribute to the funeral costs of her friend, marlena cantu. hattie kauffman, cbs news, los angeles. >> a similar story in the midwest about a year ago. >> there was a couple years ago, yeah. >>> dave is at the weather board. lots going on out there to talk about this morning. g

abby will be fine. and i'm just really thankful that he did that for my daughter. >> i know, mrs. guerra, that you don't want to talk much about abby's condition, so i guess i want to ask you, are you more optimistic this morning than you have been in recent days about her chances for survival? >> well, the doctor just kept saying to me that she's still in critical condition and it's day by day. >> have you been able to communicate with her in any way? i know you spent an awful lot of time standing by her bedside and holding her hands. do you have any indication that she realizes you're there with her? >> i think so, because i don't know if she can hear me or anything, but because of the damage she has, i don't really know if she can hear me. but i know in my heart she knows that i'm with her now. >> and you've described her as a real fighter, and if anyone can get through this, she can. can you take me back, mrs. guerra. you've been through an incredible roller coaster of emotions, first being told your daughter did not survive and then six days later being told she is alive. can you ju