Victim of Berkeley Siege in Good Spirits : Recuperation: Shot seven times by a deranged gunman, Karen Grundhofer of Newport Beach is in stable condition. ‘It’s a miracle,’ her father says.

It was “the one call you never want to get as a father,” John F. Grundhofer recalled Friday. “Three-thirty in the morning: ‘Your daughter’s been shot.’ ”

Miraculously, Karen Grundhofer of Newport Beach survived seven bullet wounds when a deranged gunman opened fire in a Berkeley hotel bar early Thursday morning. The 22-year-old UC Berkeley senior was in stable condition and good spirits Friday at Pacific Presbyterian Medical Center in San Francisco, recuperating from wounds that ranged from her hip to her chest. The bullets went through muscle and missed vital organs, said her father, a bank executive who flew from Minneapolis to the Bay Area to be with his daughter.

“Seven bullets in her, but it’s a miracle,” Grundhofer said in an interview. “Three inches either way, and she would have been dead. And that’s not much when you’re pointing a gun from 40 feet away. . . .

“When you look at her wounds, you say ‘How can she be alive?’ ”

One hostage was killed and six others, including Karen Grundhofer, were injured during the seven-hour siege at Henry’s Publick House & Grille. The gunman, Mehrdad Dashti, fired shots from three handguns, terrorized the hostages and singled out blonde women for sexual abuse before police shot and killed him.

John Grundhofer said his daughter told him that she had been having drinks at the bar--a longtime establishment popular with UC Berkeley students--when the siege began.

She was lying on the floor, as ordered by the gunman, when the bullets hit, he said.

“She was the first or second person hit,” Grundhofer said. “The other one was the young man who died.”

Soon after Karen was hit, another young woman “rescued her and pulled her out of the room,” Grundhofer said. The two women hid behind a couch outside the room where the hostages were held in the bar, located inside the Durant Hotel, and Karen’s rescuer applied pressure to the bullet wounds to slow the bleeding until paramedics arrived, the father said.

“Karen was calm and alert the whole time, never unconscious,” he said. “The people at Highland (General Hospital in Oakland, where she was initially taken) stated she was incredibly brave.”

Karen Grundhofer was later transferred to Pacific Presbyterian, where she will remain for a few days. “She’s in no danger and receiving good care, but we’re not going to take any chances,” her father said, adding that doctors want to observe her for signs of infection. She also may need plastic surgery.

Apparently, the bullets damaged no internal organs because Karen was lying on her side and the bullets passed solely through skin and muscle tissue, John Grundhofer said.

“It’s hard to explain, but whatever the angle, however it worked, she was incredibly lucky. The good Lord was watching over her,” he said.

Despite her good spirits, Karen Grundhofer is not up to interviews with the press, her father said. He was flying back Friday afternoon to Minneapolis, where he is chairman of First Bank System. Karen’s mother, Lynda, and sister, Kathryn, who live in Newport Beach, were staying with her, he said.

John Grundhofer was Wells Fargo & Co.’s top banker in Southern California until earlier this year, when he departed to head up the struggling First Bank System. He has been chairman of the Southern California United States Olympic Committee and a board member of South Coast Repertory and the Los Angeles Music Center.

Karen Grundhofer, who was a debutante at the 1986 Children’s Home Society Ball, graduated from Newport Harbor High School that same year. Her father said she currently is a fifth-year senior, majoring in sociology, and a member of Pi Beta Phi at UC Berkeley. She works part time at the Durant Hotel, spent a summer employed by the Four Seasons hotel in Washington and hopes to go into hotel management, he said.

Her hospital room is full of flowers from well-wishers, he reported, noting that “the spirit of the school is terrific. There’s concern from across the country.” John Grundhofer added that several of his daughter’s friends were among the hostages forced to remain with the gunman for the duration of the siege.

“In that sense, she’s lucky: She didn’t have to sit there for seven hours,” he said. “She’s got seven bullet holes, but young kids heal fast, and she’s in a great frame of mind. . . . She’s so lucky to be alive. It’s incredible.”