U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg was released from the hospital Monday and will continue recovering at home from injuries sustained in a boat crash on Flathead Lake last week that left one staffer with a serious brain injury.
Rehberg is on crutches and has a cast where surgeons repaired a broken left ankle and a minor head injury that doctors don’t expect to cause any problems, according to friend and former staff chief Erik Iverson. The Republican’s deputy chief of staff Kristin Smith, who suffered several fractures, was also being released Monday and will be using crutches.
But state director Dustin Frost remains sedated as he suffers from a brain injury. Iverson said he does not believe that Frost, from Sunburst, Mont., has regained consciousness since the accident — but doctors are hoping for a recovery.
“While it’s good to be heading home, my thoughts and prayers remain with Dustin, Kristin, Greg, Kathy and their families,” Rehberg said in a statement.
Iverson said none of the doctors have mentioned the possibility of permanent brain injures for Frost.
“The doctors are monitoring the pressure on his brain closely,” Iverson said. “Everyone seems to be pretty optimistic that he is going to recover.”
Authorities said the investigation into the late Thursday night boat crash continues. The Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks said it has turned its file over to Flathead County Attorney Ed Corrigan.
The driver, Republican state Sen. Greg Barkus of Kalispell, has hired an attorney and is not allowing others to discuss his condition. The fifth passenger, also injured, is his wife Kathy.
The Flathead County Sheriff and FWP officers interviewed both Rehberg and Smith, Iverson said.
Iverson said Rehberg remembers much of what led up to the accident, when the party of five was using the boat to get from dinner back to their resort near Bigfork. The crash — which left the boat fully out of the water and perched on the side of a steep rock outcropping — happened shortly after 10 p.m.
“He remembers the boat ride being pretty chilly on the ride back, and visiting with Kathy Barkus, and sort of looking right up before impact and realizing this land was imminent,” Iverson said. “He doesn’t have a lot of detail after that, expect for people coming to help.”
Rehberg’s office has said the congressman had some drinks with dinner that night, but point out that his blood alcohol level was well below the legal limit of .08 for a boat operator — and are stressing that Rehberg was not driving. The BAC was tested in the emergency room some time after 1 a.m. Friday.
No such information has been released on Barkus, who could not be reached for comment Monday morning. His attorney, Todd Glazier, did not return a call.
Iverson said Smith, who works in Washington D.C. and is originally from Palos Verdes, Calif., also saw land coming right before impact. She and Kathy Barkus were sitting near Rehberg in the passenger side of the boat hunkered out of the wind. Frost was near the rear of the boat.
“Kristin Smith remembers a woman taking the shirt off her back to hold up to her head, because her head was bleeding,” Iverson said.
Iverson said Republican Leader John Boehner and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have called him, as have Montana’s U.S. senators, Max Baucus and Jon Tester.
