My heart goes out to the families of the miners who didn't make it after all. They received some misinformation from a mining official that all 12 were alive tonight when in fact only one survivor was recovered. The miscommunication started between the recovery team and the control room, and apparently someone from the control room was too excited to wait and told the families what they all believed at that time, that all twelve were alive. About twenty minutes later the miscommunication was cleared up and they were told that it had not been confirmed that the twelve were alive--they were still checking vital signs. A decision was made at that point not to immediately dampen the hopes of the families yet again but to wait until they knew if there were any survivors. So for a few hours the families went on believing that their loved ones had survived. I can only imagine the devastation of being informed at that point that no, they are not coming home safe and sound.

I'm sure the person who told them thought he or she was doing a good thing by not making them wait to hear good news. I hope this serves as a cautionary tale in the future. I also hope that the media learns that getting the scoop is not as important as checking your sources, as this misinformation went out across the country tonight as if it were confirmed news.

The one survivor is in critical condition and has been moved to a level one trauma center. Let us all pray for at least one miracle out of this tragedy.