Zambian woman's ambitions waylaid by Metrolink crash

She has not regained consciousness since the deadly Metrolink crash on Sept. 12, which left her with a fractured skull, a broken ankle, a dislocated hip, third-degree burns, and lacerations on her face and one of her legs.

But "we gain little increments of hope," said Pat Abruzzese. He and his wife, Joanne, have spent hour after hour by Mofya's side in the intensive care unit at County-USC Medical Center.

Mofya, 27, an exchange student from Zambia, had been living in the Abruzzeses' Simi Valley home for a year when the crash occurred. That day, she had taken an early train home from her classes downtown. Joanne Abruzzese was at the train station, waiting for her.

Members of Mofya's adopted Simi Valley family have stood by her bedside and prayed for a miracle ever since, joined in spirit by Mofya's large family back home in southern Africa.

One of her older sisters, Martha, who is also studying in the United States, flew in from Minneapolis to join the vigil the day after the crash and has rarely left her room. Another older sister, Agnes, who lives in Zambia, is trying to get a visa and raise money for a plane ticket. The Abruzzeses are helping her.

Both families continue to hope that Mofya will one day awaken and resume the extraordinary journey that took her from her impoverished country to California as one of eight students chosen from 200 for a highly competitive Rotary program.

"I can see she's fighting," Joanne Abruzzese said. "It's not in her personality to give up."

Mofya was close to finishing her business studies at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in downtown Los Angeles, the Abruzzeses said. Her plan was to work for a year in the United States to save some money, then return to Zambia to open a cosmetics business.

Right now, those dreams seem a long way off.

Mofya recently got skin grafts to replace flesh burned in the early moments of the crash. Doctors say she also may need a corneal transplant.

They are reluctant to comment on her long-term prospects for a full recovery until the swelling in her brain subsides more, Joanne Abruzzese said.

If it was fate that led Mofya to Metrolink 111, fate also played a role in bringing her from one of the poorest nations in the world to the Abruzzeses' upscale home.