It isn't every day that the whole "one in a million" statistic comes to light. Most of the time, one in a million is reserved for those outstanding instances, a stroke of luck, if you will. Like the twin babies born in 2006, one black and one white, each taking after one of their parents. Or the chances of winning the Powerball or finding a treasure chest while snorkeling or something like that. To be a part of that one-in-a-million crowd is pretty rare. It's fascinating if you actually think about it. But then there is another side of the one-in-a-million coin. The darker side that comes around when you least expect it, and leaves you wondering how the heck something so random could possibly have happened that way.
Case in point: Austin Hatch.
For those of you who don't know, Austin Hatch is an Indiana high school basketball player from Fort Wayne. A 6-foot-6 junior, Austin has committed to play for the University of Michigan Wolverines as a freshman in 2013. And he is the survivor of not one, but TWO plane crashes that have now left him the sole survivor in his immediate family. In 2003, his family was flying from their home in Fort Wayne to their lake house up on Walloon in Michigan. Austin and his father survived the crash that killed his mother and his two siblings. Now, eight years later, he's lying in a drug-induced coma in a Traverse City, MI hospital after surviving a second plane crash that killed his father and stepmother.
I mean, what are the odds? It has to be a million to one. Hell, it's probably even less likely than that. But there it is. When my sister and her friends, they themselves Wolverine athletes, told us about the news on Sunday, I didn't believe what they were saying at first.
When I was a junior in high school I'm pretty sure all I was concerned with was anxiously anticipating summer and spending weekends with my friends. And now here is this boy, not even having started his junior year of high school, who is now the only one from his immediate family left. All of them taken from him in two separate, highly unlikely tragic plane crashes. My heart absolutely breaks for him. It is still uncertain if he will be able to pull through, but I can't help but wonder how I would feel if something like that happened to me: To wake up from a coma to realize I was an orphan, alone in the world without ever having the chance to see the most important people in my life again. Would you want to wake up? To be a survivor is an amazing thing, but I have to wonder at what cost?
Tragedy strikes when you least expect it. This kid's story, while extraordinary, is a heartbreaking reminder that to be one in a million is sometimes a terrible stroke of luck. My thoughts and prayers go out to him and his extended family.
Click here to read the full story from IndyStar.com.
Case in point: Austin Hatch.
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| IndyStar.com |
I mean, what are the odds? It has to be a million to one. Hell, it's probably even less likely than that. But there it is. When my sister and her friends, they themselves Wolverine athletes, told us about the news on Sunday, I didn't believe what they were saying at first.
When I was a junior in high school I'm pretty sure all I was concerned with was anxiously anticipating summer and spending weekends with my friends. And now here is this boy, not even having started his junior year of high school, who is now the only one from his immediate family left. All of them taken from him in two separate, highly unlikely tragic plane crashes. My heart absolutely breaks for him. It is still uncertain if he will be able to pull through, but I can't help but wonder how I would feel if something like that happened to me: To wake up from a coma to realize I was an orphan, alone in the world without ever having the chance to see the most important people in my life again. Would you want to wake up? To be a survivor is an amazing thing, but I have to wonder at what cost?
 |
| IndyStar.com |
Tragedy strikes when you least expect it. This kid's story, while extraordinary, is a heartbreaking reminder that to be one in a million is sometimes a terrible stroke of luck. My thoughts and prayers go out to him and his extended family.
Click here to read the full story from IndyStar.com.
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