Note: This column first appeared on the Durant Democrat website. It was edited to include information that was confirmed since it was first posted. The worst thing about getting a story wrong is that the real story gets lost. It wasn’t the first wreck I’ve covered, but it was the first to compete with social media. By now we all know the story. Four promising young men were rear ended at a Durant intersection. Two declared dead at the scene, the others died the next day, Memorial Day. Typically, media outlets rely on official reports for the basics of such stories. Witnesses, family members and friends, even first responders can provide good information, but things like time and manner of death should come from an official report. All that Monday, social media reported four boys killed. Local news outlets reported Facebook posts from “close family friends” that all four boys had died. I wanted to write a story, but I couldn’t. I didn’t consider social media a reliable source. I didn’t know if the other media outlets had unattributed sources that I couldn’t reach. I didn’t know if the “family friends” had permission to speak on the family’s behalf. I was fighting with my base desire to be first. As a reporter, I want to be the source of information. But being first is useless if you’re wrong. So, I erred on the side of caution and sat on my hands. Monday night we learned that the social media story being reported all that day was wrong. Hunter Ford was alive. At a press conference Monday night, we learned that three of the boys were dead and one was in critical condition. What we hadn’t known was that Jack Sarver and Hunter Ford’s families donated their organs. For some reason, not important here, Ford’s donation was in process that night. So, as he lay in a hospital bed on life support, the rest of us resumed trying to be first. Just hours after the press conference Hunter’s mother confirmed in a social media post that her son had been declared brain dead and was on life support. The social media frenzy resumed. We were assured that reliable sources confirmed that this time it was true, four boys had died. The problem was four boys had not died. Hunter Ford was still alive. That is not just semantics. It’s not quibbling over medical terminology or petty competition over who gets credit for breaking a story. Hunter was on life support and it’s called “life support” for a reason. A dead person can’t donate organs. When that heart or liver or lung is taken it has to be vital and functioning. It has to be alive. If we set ourselves up to tell the story, whether as a news organization or as “a close friend of the family” in a social media post, being accurate is more important than being first. It’s true that there was no hope for Hunter. But that didn’t mean all hope was gone. Hunter Ford was still alive. As long as Hunter’s body lived there was hope. As long as his body was sustained by medical technology the young man who ran track for Durant High School could do one more good thing. I never knew Hunter, but I believe that given the circumstances he would have agreed to do that thing. So, the surgeons went to work, and the fourth boy’s body finally died. Hunter’s story does not end there. It didn’t end with his physical death any more than his life ended with bogus news reports. As the machines were turned off, and his family’s grief was made complete, somewhere a telephone rang. Somewhere, someone was told that their prayer had been answered. Somewhere, a person who was losing hope had hope renewed by a young life that had reached its end. There are no guarantees. We are not promised tomorrow. If our prayers are answered, Hunter and Jack will live on in the people to whom they gave hope. Hunter and Jack died as results of injuries they received in that tragic wreck. Long live Hunter Ford and Jack Sarver.
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