EARTHQUAKE / THE LONG ROAD BACK : Man Freed From Debris Keeps Faith : Rescue: Surgeons avoided amputating the limbs of Salvador Pena in a five-hour operation. The maintenance worker was trapped beneath a collapsed parking garage for seven hours.

Trapped under 20 tons of concrete for seven hours by the deadly quake, Salvador Pena never lost consciousness or faith. He prayed and he asked his rescuers to pray with him.

On Tuesday, it appeared that those desperate prayers, similar to prayers uttered all across Los Angeles in the moments and hours after the quake, had been answered.

In serious condition at UCLA Medical Center, Pena was alert, even cheerful, although still not out of danger.

Pena, 43, is struggling to recover from the damage wrought when the earth’s shudder sent two floors of a parking structure at the Northridge Fashion Center tumbling onto him. Pena’s doctor said five surgeons who operated for five hours Monday avoided having to amputate his crushed right hand and legs, but attributed their apparent success as much to luck as to medical skill.

“If this had happened during daylight hours, there would have been hundreds of Mr. Penas and not much we could do for them,” said UCLA’s chief of surgery, Dr. Michael Zinner.

Pena operated a power sweeper for a Van Nuys company under contract to the mall and was only 30 minutes into his shift when the quake hit, knocking the three-level structure’s supporting columns sideways and trapping him on the first floor.

Of those who survived the quake, Pena was among the most severely injured. And his rescue, involving the will and ingenuity of dozens of firefighters and paramedics, was among the most dramatic. After drilling through two concrete slabs, rescuers dropped into the hole they had made and inflated four air bags--each capable of lifting as much as 74 tons--to move a concrete beam off his right arm and legs.

As bad as Pena’s injuries were, rescuers had originally feared they were worse--that his legs might have been severed, city firefighter Kurt Fasmer said. “He was absolutely scared stiff and so were we,” Fasmer said.

Throughout the ordeal, paramedics remained at the injured man’s side beneath the parking deck.

“He was in a lot of pain and he kept saying, ‘Come down and pray with me, come down and pray,” said Rey Lavalle, a Los Angeles City firefighter who spoke with Pena in Spanish.

Pena, a West Los Angeles resident, holds a $6-an-hour job with Industrial Janitor Service, based in Van Nuys. Jeff Starr, who owns the company, called Pena “a real conscientious worker” but said he knew little else about the man.

“No one can imagine how brave you’d have to be to get through that,” he said.

Pena is married and has at least one son, but his family was in seclusion at the hospital and unavailable for comment.

Zinner said the five surgeons raced against time to save Pena’s legs. They made incisions 8 to 10 inches long in his injured limbs to relieve swelling and reduce pressure in constricted blood vessels, he said.

But Pena was still in danger Tuesday, both from possible kidney failure and from side effects of the damage to his limbs. Although Pena’s legs will not have to be amputated, Zinner said he may not recover the use of them.

“He is still quite frightened because he can’t move or feel his feet or lower legs,” Zinner said. “But he’s just remarkable--bright and responsive. He’s a wonderfully courageous man who is extremely lucky to be alive.”