‘Nobody deserves this’: Family looks to prevent another tragedy
Rodney Peterzen arrived home on a recent Tuesday eager to help his son tackle fourthgrade homework, but his wife met him at their Spring Brancharea home with a worried face.
“Where’s Victor?” she asked. Luisa Peterzen’s maternal instinct kicked in when she heard an ambulance minutes after her 10-year-old son left on his bike.
With dread, Rodney remembered the flashing police lights he saw two blocks away and sped back to the intersection. There, Victor’s bike lay mangled beneath a black Jeep Wrangler. The boy’s legs poked out from the stretcher.
Two days later, doctors pronounced the 10-year-old boy brain dead. The next week they
removed the machines keeping him alive when his parents made the wrenching choice to save other lives with Victor’s organs.
The neighborhood, shaken by the tragedy, will gather Saturday night for a candlelight vigil to raise awareness about residential safety and bring justice in the boy’s death. The driver who struck Victor was not charged in the crash because police say the boy failed to yield at a stop sign. After the crash, residents stuck signs in their yards that say: “Drive like your kids live here.” The neighborhood association is planning a bicycle safety class that Rodney plans to get involved in.
“That is the biggest thing that is keeping me together, the organs and knowing that we can make a change,” Luisa said. “This pain is not going to be for another family. Nobody deserves this. That is my hope, for people to be happy with their children, for them to be able to ride a bike.”
A birthday bike
Three months earlier, Rodney purchased the best bike he could find at Sun and Ski Sports for Victor’s birthday. The maroon bike, equipped with all the best parts, was big enough for his son to grow.
Victor posed with a peace sign on his new bike, adorned with balloons, on the green space at City Centre where the family celebrated his double-digit birthday.
Residents saw Victor riding often around the neighborhood of tidy single-family homes, green parks and schools sandwiched between the busy Gessner Road and Sam Houston Tollway. Speed bumps were installed years ago to slow traffic, but residents said some drivers still fly recklessly down the residential streets.
Rodney said Victor rode the new bike as hard as he could. His father would laugh when he’d burst inside panting, chug water and take off for another ride.
His mother said the 10-year-old was responsible. He didn’t tear up his toys and hardly had to be disciplined. During third-grade parent-teacher conferences, his teacher asked Victor’s parents what they had done right — their son was unusually mature.
It’s unclear exactly what happened at 6 p.m. Sept. 1.
Victor was riding north on Maux Drive when he failed to yield the right-of-way at a stop sign and was struck by the Jeep traveling west on Knoboak Drive, according to the Houston Police Department. Officers questioned and released the driver, a 43-year-old woman who did not show signs of intoxication.
The case will be referred to a grand jury because the victim was a juvenile, said John Cannon, police spokesman. Police could not discuss the details of how the collision occurred because the investigation remains ongoing.
Meanwhile, the Peterzen family is struggling to comprehend how their child can be faulted while the woman who hit him walked away without a consequence. Even if it’s legally correct, they said, it feels morally wrong.
Rodney said he doesn’t know why the driver didn’t see Victor or why Victor didn’t see the driver. He thinks the woman should at least be ticketed.
“I don’t wish the worst for her, I didn’t want her to go to prison or something — I know it was an accident,” he said. “The way the law’s written, Victor’s 100 percent at fault. But in reality he wasn’t, if she wasn’t looking either.”
The blame on their child and the lack of accountability, Rodney said, is the latest part of the nightmare.
Saving other lives
The first update from emergency room doctors at Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital was good: Victor’s organs were fine.
But bad news quickly followed. The child had suffered severe head trauma when the Jeep’s offroad bumper, a U-shaped metal pipe protruding from the front of the vehicle, struck him in the head. He was not wearing a helmet despite his mother always reminding him to put it on, Rodney said, but medical professionals at the hospital told the family it likely would not have made a difference.
“You can imagine how we felt,” Rodney said. “Although it would’ve been better if he’d have it on, they assured us it wasn’t going to save his life.”
Doctors pronounced Victor brain dead two days after the accident and gave his parents a death certificate, but the news was impossible to accept. Victor’s body was still warm. Machines kept his heart pumping and his lungs breathing. He looked peaceful, beautiful as always, like he could be sleeping.
Luisa dropped to the floor and prayed with a nurse, asking God to intervene. She refused to let go of her son.
Surrounding by beeping machines, Luisa and Rodney spent sleepless days and nights praying, researching and clinging to hope. Luisa debated: What if I’m not doing enough? What if he needs more time? What if he wakes up later?
“In that moment, as a mother, you’re really holding on tight to any possibility, probability,” she said.
But by Monday, Sept. 7, there was nothing more to do.
The Peterzens decided that if they could not save their own child, they would give his heart, lungs, liver, kidneys and pancreas to save others.
Before hospital staff removed the machines and wheeled Victor into surgery to remove his organs, the parents prayed. Luisa sang a song she wrote years ago for her son: “In the loneliness and fears, your love has been there with me.” Rodney doesn’t remember the singing.
Somehow, they said goodbye.
The Victor they never knew
Now, Luisa cannot sleep. Rodney sleeps to escape his new reality but wakes up every morning in horror. He thinks: “Oh my god, not another day without Victor.”
Neighbors, friends from Bunker Hill Elementary and family have brought food and fond memories to share with the grieving parents and their 3-year-old daughter.
Luisa and Rodney have learned things about Victor they never knew, like how he raced his friends at recess to the top of a jungle gym net like his favorite superhero, Spider-Man. Or how he always defended kids who were picked on by bullies. He made everyone, even adults, feel comfortable with an easy kindness.
The parents are overwhelmed by the memories of their son. They have not been able to open the door to his bedroom.
Three days before the crash, Luisa took her excited son to buy shoes for the new school year. They held hands on the special outing. When they returned home, Victor wanted to see his mother’s new shoes, a pair of black Vans.
“He goes, ‘Wow, that’s so awesome, they are so beautiful Mom. I’m proud of you. They are going to look good on you,’” Luisa said.
She hasn’t worn them yet.