Survivor of deadly DUI crash battling bills after hospital release

By Amal Elhelw

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    PORTLAND, Oregon (KPTV) — Two of the three victims in a drunk driving crash have been released from the hospital after sustaining major injuries. Now, one of those men is facing a mountain of medical bills.

Nariman Mosharaf suffered a brain bleed, concussion, punctured liver and had to have surgery on his lungs. His friend, Alisa Sobova, started a GoFundMe to alleviate some of the financial burden caused by the hospital bills, though she said it’s that sort of help he would typically never accept.

“He’s always been a very, very humble and kind person. Anyone in need, he would always be the first one to be like, ‘Hey, do you need help? I’m here,’” Sobova said.

The crash took place on Feb. 10 on SW Columbia Street and Naito Parkway when police said 46-year-old Jacob Tabor crashed into Mosharaf’s car which was stopped at a red light.

“He said that they just saw this like bright light coming at them very fast,” Sobova said, “That’s when the drunk driver drove into them.”

Two of Mosharaf’s friends were in the car with him. The person in the passenger seat was treated for his injuries and released from the hospital. However, 23-year-old Wael Zahran was pinned in the backseat and didn’t survive.

“That friend’s mother is back in his country. And she wasn’t able to make it to the funeral and the funeral was actually on his birthday,” Sobova said.

After already losing his friend, Mosharaf is now having to deal with another kind of loss.

“When we were visiting him, you could just tell he wasn’t able to properly breathe, he had to have the breathing machine on and he was just always saying, ‘I’m in pain, I’m in pain’ and just pointing at his chest,” Sobova said.

While the 29-year-old is slowly working to recover from his injuries, he has yet to tackle the medical bills that have followed.

“He’s not allowed to go to work right now for at least two months, but we don’t know how long that’s going to take for him to heal,” Sobova said. “I made the GoFundMe and started posting everywhere and asking people to post it because he is going to have a lot of medical bills and unfortunately, there’s no insurance help at all.”

Sobova is hoping the community will pitch in to help her friend get back on his feet.

“It’s just like something that you never really think about until it happens to you, and so when it happens to someone that’s so close to you, I think it’s almost as sad, if not sadder, just because you know, you can’t help. But I just really hope at least the GoFundMe will help release the stress a little bit,” Sobova said.

Authorities said Tabor, the drunk driver, responsible for the crash is facing charges of manslaughter, assault, DUII, reckless driving, and criminal mischief. He pleaded not guilty to those charges on Feb. 21.

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