Long Road Home : A Close-Knit Family Helps Lorena Avantes in a Difficult Recovery From a Near-Fatal Injury

Three weeks ago, Lorena Avantes was in a coma that doctors thought might never end, the most seriously injured of 10 victims of a runaway truck at one of Glendale’s most notorious intersections.

Friends and relatives have kept a vigil at her hospital bedside since the Oct. 25 accident, remembering Lorena as a lively 21-year-old college student with a good job, a loving family and a bright future.

On Thanksgiving, her family gathered at the hospital for holiday meals.

Her mother, Graciela Avantes, goes to the hospital each night at 5 p.m. and sleeps in her daughter’s room.

“I started spending the night there . . . because the doctors told me that at any time, she might open her eyes suddenly, or they might close forever,” Avantes said.

Then, as suddenly as the accident that sent her to the hospital, Lorena regained consciousness.

Despite the loss of motor skills and much of her memory, doctors at Huntington Memorial Hospital’s rehabilitation unit believe she can make a full recovery, possibly within two years.

For now, family members are trying to help by reminding her of things from her past.

“It’s kind of a back-and-forth process,” said Lorena’s twin sister, Liliana. “One day she’ll remember people’s names and recognize their faces, and other days she can’t recognize anyone. There are certain periods of her life that she has no memory of, and we’re just trying to help her get that back.”

Doctors say Lorena is still in a partial coma, and only members of her immediate family and her boyfriend, Robert Coppel, are allowed to visit her.

“It’s really hard to take sometimes. She’s not the same person she was,” said Coppel, who has been at the hospital daily since the accident. “She was such an alive, independent kind of person, and now she needs help walking, tying her shoes--she even has to learn how to eat all over again.”

The accident at Verdugo Road and Mountain Street sent nine others to hospitals with minor injuries, including Jose Arturo Velez, the driver of the truck. Six passengers aboard a bus were also injured.

Velez, 38, of San Fernando, was charged with misdemeanor traffic violations, including exceeding a city-imposed 6,000-pound weight limit for trucks on Mountain Street by more than 2,300 pounds.

“If she [Lorena] had died, obviously the charges would be much more severe,” said Sgt. Rick Young of the Glendale Police Department. “Fortunately, she didn’t, but he still should be held accountable for what happened.”

Police and other city officials say the intersection, a key access point to Glendale Community College and the Glendale Freeway, has long been a trouble spot. The truck weight restriction was imposed in 1993, after several heavy trucks exiting the freeway at Mountain Street--which has an 11% grade--lost control coming down the hill. Last year, 25 accidents were reported at the intersection.

Following the collision that left Lorena injured, the city erected an electronic sign that alerts motorists of their speed as they descend the hill, but it was removed after a few weeks.

Velez, who was also charged with speeding and failing to properly maintain his truck’s brakes, is free on bail pending a court appearance. Members of the Avantes family said Velez is unemployed and had no automobile insurance, and they are not pursuing legal action against him.

So far, the bulk of Lorena’s hospital bills and other medical costs--which have already surpassed $162,000--have been paid by her insurance carrier.

But family members expect to soon receive a bill for the 10% deductible. And once Lorena is allowed to return home, which could happen by midyear, they wonder how they will pay for her in-home therapy and care.

Graciela Avantes, who raised her three daughters and son, Sergio, as a single parent, works as an assistant to a fashion designer but has cut her hours to spend time with Lorena. Donations from friends and the public have tapered, and Sergio, 22, has been trying to pick up the slack by working as much overtime as he can at his job with a chrome-plating company.

“This family has never had a lot of money. We’ve always lived day by day, so this has really set us back,” said Liliana. “But with every little bit of progress we see that Lorena is making, we have hope to keep us going.”