I laughed when I read a letter in a newspaper some time back, It was from a man who'd been in a serious car smash. During brief bouts of consciousness as he was been wheeled out of surgery the orderlies stopped one of the nurses and asked "Will he die?" to which she read the notes, nodded and said "Yes" and then carried on her way. He immediately put himself right with God and asked to be put in close contact with a priest who was doing his rounds.
It was three weeks before it dawned on him what he had, in actual fact, heard. He was in the fracture clinic - the William Dyford ward, referred to by all as Willie Dye. 
I was in the local A&E when there was an elderly couple the other side of the curtains.
I saw the doctor going into see them and heard her say "I've seen the xrays. the knee is broken". There were sounds of obvious shock, then she said.
"No I'm only joking, you've got arthritis ." 
