Lisa Blod limped down the stairs, not letting the high heels and long shimmering maroon prom dress trip her. Her boyfriend waited patiently at the bottom. He knew it was going to take her a while.

Coming down stairs will be more difficult for Lisa, at least for a while. Two months ago, she lay in a coma in a Riverside hospital. After eight weeks of rehabilitation in Long Beach, she was released to go home. That was two weeks ago.

Friday night, Lisa, 17, attended her senior prom with her boyfriend, Joseph Carrillo, and classmates at Riverside's Notre Dame High School.

Doctors had told Lisa's parents, John and Karen Blod, that because of her injuries, she probably would not be able to attend the prom or graduation, and that college might have to be delayed. "Under the circumstances, this was a remarkable recovery," said Dr. Kimberly BeDell, director of pediatric rehabilitation at Miller Children's Hospital at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center.

The goal of attending the prom drove Lisa to work toward her recovery.

She told her doctors she had to go. They scheduled her release the day before the prom but they ended up releasing her two weeks early.

While hospitalized, "I pretended I was going to be able to do all the things I planned on doing," Lisa said.

Lisa has spent eight weeks recovering from the Jan. 26 car accident that caused minor brain contusions, a damaged spleen, a fluid-filled left lung, nerve damage in her right eye, a fractured collar bone and cuts and bruises on her swollen face.

Lisa was driving on Victoria Avenue near John Street after finishing work as a hostess at Coco's and stopping to see her boyfriend. She swerved to avoid something in the road and hit a tree. She does not remember the accident, but she always wore her seat belt and stayed within the speed limit, she says.

She was in a coma for two weeks at Riverside Community Hospital. Doctors performed exploratory surgery and removed her spleen. But Lisa didn't wake up because her brain was swollen, her doctors said.

When she started to come out of the coma, she was able only to blink her eyes. Then she gained some strength in her hand and tried to communicate by using the sign language she learned in eighth grade.

Doctors and nurses first thought it was a muscle spasm. But Lisa's father didn't think so. The family scrambled to get someone to translate, and charts with signs helped them understand what she was trying to say.

Friends and faculty from Notre Dame prayed for the girl they knew as the singer and actress in school plays. About 60 get-well cards stand on a table in the corner of the Blod home, along with dozens of stuffed animals.

On Feb. 18, Lisa was transferred to Miller Children's Hospital to begin rehabilitation. She could not speak or walk.

With the prom and graduation in mind, Lisa, also known as "L-funk" by school friends, fought to recover. Her humor carried her through.

Her occupational therapist called her George, after the main character in the movie "George of the Jungle," who slams into a tree while flying through the air. When the therapist took breaks, Lisa would ask him how his eating or watching television was going to help her get better.

"It's 95 percent attitude and 5 percent physical," said Lisa. "I focused on what I would be able to do with time."

Friday afternoon, she sat at the kitchen table of her family's La Sierra home. Her mom curled her long red hair into ringlets with a curling iron. A can of hair spray sat nearby. Lights and television cameras from the CBS show "Inside Edition" focused on her.

After getting dressed, Joseph, her boyfriend, tied her white rose corsage around her wrist and she tried, but was unable, to pin his matching boutonniere. They left as any teen-agers do on the way to their big night, with smiles and proud parents looking on.

`It's like when she was first born," said John Blod. It's the "excitement that she's going to experience all life has to offer. We're getting a second opportunity to see her life go forward and do the things parents aspire for their child."

Lisa will graduate with her class this year, with plans to study music at Riverside Community College next year. Because learning may be more difficult as a result of her brain injuries, she will have to adjust her study habits, her doctors said. She won't be able to procrastinate and cram at the end, and will have to be more persistent in her note-taking.

For now, though, Lisa is excited about being able to feed herself, comb her hair and brush her teeth.

"You never realize what you take for granted," she said. "I was doing everything I can to be safe, but even if you're doing everything right, something can still happen."

Lisa is scheduled to appear on "Inside Edition" at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday on CBS, Channel 2.

Hala Ali Aryan can be reached by e-mail at haryan@pe.com or by phone at 782-7878.

Published 4/8/2000