Macbook Pro damaged, need to continue to use hard drive: options?

Daughter's friend just spilled full glass of Italian soda (which is basically soda water and a relatively small amount of sugary syrup) on a table next to my daughter's Macbook Pro Model: A1286.  Before my daughter had a chance to pick up the Macbook, it was too late: soda had coursed under it (between the bottom of the laptop and the table, and on the left edge of the laptop, where the USB ports are.

The screen immediately went black, and, she says, it's "acting dead".

No liquid got on the upper surface (keyboard)...just underneath, and on the lefthand side.

Are such incidents typically fixable for less than the cost of a refurbished laptop?

Do Macbooks typically recover from such incidents given time to try out (and perhaps 24 hours in a Bheestie Bag, or similar de-humidifier)?   (As to this last bit, I would prefer answers based on real-world experience, rather than rumor or "I heard of a guy once who put his Macbook in the microwave," etc.)

In the interests of getting back up and running quickly, and retaining her data (assuming the hard drive isn't damaged), would there be any issues with removing her hard drive (running Snow Leopard), and inserting it into another Macbook Pro?  Would that Macbook Pro need to be precisely the same configuration as hers, or will the operating system be smart enough to adjust itself to slightly different hardware (different screen say, or different amount of memory or different graphics card)?

Our priorities, in order, are:

#1:  Get her back up and running as fast as possible with her data intact (she has schoolwork that's partially done)
#2:  Be reasonably economical.

What do you think are our best options here?  (Smacking around the friend, while it might be satisfying for a moment, is not a long-term solution.)

Thanks!