Wootans Still Serious In SLC Hospital

Wes Wootan and his wife, Christine, remain in critical but stable condition in the LDS Hospital in Salt Lake City, UT, following a pickup rollover near Ely, NV, on October 20.

Frank Muir, president and CEO of the Idaho Potato Commission, on which Wootan serves as a member, said that both have under gone surgery for broken necks and Wootan on his lower back which was also broken and an ankle. A knee injury may not require surgery.

The Wootans were en route to a family reunion in Arizona with his father, Marvin, when the four-door pickup in which they were riding rolled off a highway in heavy fog. Marvin will killed in the accident. After the 4:30 a.m. accident, they were life-flighted to the SLC hospital at 4 p.m. after being stabilized and when fog lifted.

Wootan, in a direct phone call to Muir, reported that Christine will be paralyzed as a quadriplegic. He reported that her life is no longer in immediate dange and that she is conscious and aware of what happened to her.

Wootan will be hospitalized for four-to-six weeks. They are being kept together and in the near future will be transported to a Boise, ID, hospital together.

Wootan said it will be four or five weeks before he will be able to try to walk and several months before he can move on his own.

Muir said he was impressed with Wootan's usual determinedness to face this challenge and go forward.

Muir said Wootan continues to ask for prayers in their behalf and that he appreciates all the prayers and concerns that have been offered.