Mother, Son Struggling Back

Keith Ostrom can handle the wheelchair, even the change of direction his life will take after the grisly accident on U.S. Highway 95 last June.

But he can’t handle the $28,000 in medical bills he faces because Peter Enos fell asleep at the wheel and hit Ostrom’s car nearly head-on at 60 mph.

“We’ve always paid bills and Keith has terrific credit,” says Roxann Ostrom, Keith’s mother. She’s in school and working two jobs to help her 19-year-old son. “This just isn’t fair.”

Todd Reed, a Bonner County deputy prosecutor, tried to help Ostrom find money. He applied to a crime victim’s assistance fund. But the fund rejected Ostrom because Enos is charged with reckless driving - a misdemeanor, not a felony crime.

Lawyers with experience in such cases have warned Ostrom to expect no help from Enos, who’s 25. Reed plans to seek restitution from Enos in court, but says if he has no money, there’s nothing to get.

“It’s frustrating for us because our primary goal is to return the victim to his whole position before the crime,” Reed says. “We’re trying, but …”

Ostrom was heading home to Coeur d’Alene from Sandpoint in the afternoon of June 14 when Enos’ car crossed the center line, corrected, then crossed again and smashed into Ostrom’s car.

Ostrom’s passenger told police Enos’ eyes were wide open as he came at them. Police say Enos never touched his brakes.

A seat belt saved Ostrom from death, but barely. The crash bruised his brain, cut his left arm to the bone, crushed his diaphragm and spleen, lacerated his liver, pushed his other internal organs into his right lung, collapsing it, and cracked his pelvis.

“As the doctor was naming the injuries, I just wanted to scream at him to shut up,” Roxann Ostrom says, shaking her head. She laughs now at how out of control she was. Her ability to see a shred of humor in the hell her family has endured helps keep her sane.

During his first month in the hospital, Ostrom’s kidneys failed and his other organs followed. His blood pressure plummeted. He took 22 units of blood. His mother quit college and work. She never left his side at the hospital.

Ostrom left the hospital last September in a wheelchair. Scars resembling wide burns indicate where doctors cut out the leg muscles that had died.

Now, he sits tall in his chair, the physique of a skier and body-builder once again visible in his upper body. Feeling is creeping back into his legs, but not to his feet. If he’s bitter, he hides it behind chatter about a new course for life, his college plans.

But he does worry about money, and so does his mother. Ostrom’s health insurance covered most of his $300,000 medical bill, but $28,000 is left. And the collection notices are piling up.

The Ostroms sold their house to pay living expenses during their son’s hospitalization. The sale and $4,000 raised by friends also helped pay some medical bills. But not enough.

Ostrom has worked since age 14, but can’t work now - at least for awhile.

The Ostroms are angry Idaho State Police Cpl. Terry Ford didn’t ask Enos to take a drug and alcohol test at the crash scene. Any evidence of substance abuse would give Ostrom a stronger case in court and open crime-victim assistance funds to him.

But drug and alcohol testing is up to an officer’s discretion in Idaho.

“If there was any evidence of alcohol at all, I would’ve done a test,” says Ford, a officer with 18 years of experience. “I talked to the ambulance crew and the driver himself (Enos) and there didn’t appear to be any evidence to me personally.”

Attorneys have kept Ostrom and Enos apart. But that non-communication has fed the Ostroms’ anger.

They believe rumors that the Enos family will fight any claims that Enos should help pay for Ostrom’s medical bills - and that frustrates them more than anything.

Those rumors aren’t true, says Susie Enos, Peter’s mother.

“They’ve been in our thoughts, our prayers. We were ready to sell our house,” she says, reeling from the news that Ostrom is in a wheelchair. She had checked on his condition and heard he’d recovered. “We’d do anything for them, but our attorney said wait.”

Peter Enos declined to be interviewed. He works long days in construction and, his mother says, the crash still haunts him. He’s working 15-hour days to raise money to help Ostrom, but it still will be a struggle, she says.

“He’s a good, honest kid and he will make it right,” she says. “Peter won’t shirk his responsibility.”

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