Is there a word similar to "condolences" that doesn't involve death?

Solution 1:

What is your problem with condolence? It does not only apply to grief of death, but of any severe suffering. Its origins are similar to sympathy and compassion, all meaning essentially to suffer together (or as the commenter said "I feel your pain.")

However, all three of these words seem to work: I offer my sympathies, or condolences. I'd also say that to say "I'm sorry" only means "I apologize" in some circumstances. "I'm sorry for the terrible thing happening to you" does not in any way imply that you feel responsible, or are accepting any blame.

Solution 2:

In this context I think it's a contraction of "I'm sorry to hear that" which works better in most circumstances.

In fact I believe that the problem is often the difficulty of coming up with an appropriate response because of the shock factor of the information just received.

"That's dreadful", or "That's terrible" or "How awful" work for me as generic responses that are compassionate without sounding sarcastic.

In the xkcd examnple you gave a more usual response would surely have been "is she alright".