Happens all the time. Enough that it's in the briefings that families get. They warn them that they may be notified first by their loved one. It's just a result of a smaller world today.
Interesting, Doctor. I didn't know that. I sustained a pretty bad playground injury when I was a kid and I made the police who were calling my mom from the hospital let me talk to her first because I knew she would become hysterical and assume I had died. There was no manual for my mom, but I sure could have used one.