3 CHEERS FOR THE `MIRACLE GIRL'.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY 

The comeback kid lay in the post-op recovery room at Kaiser Foundation Hospital last week, eyes closed, trying to focus on what her doctor was saying.

``Who is president of the United States?'' Dr. Bruce Enos asked, whispering into the ear of 16-year-old Kristina Lopez, the cheerleader who had to drop out of St. Genevieve's High School because of her epileptic seizures and then was banished from a sideline appearance because she wasn't a student.

``Bill Clinton,'' she murmured, still a little groggy from a four-hour surgery to remove her right temporal lobe and hopefully end the seizures she has been experiencing through her teen years.

One of the dangers of this delicate operation is a temporary loss of short-term memory. Enos had to know if the North Hills teen-ager still had hers.

``Who is his girlfriend?'' the doctor then asked.

``Monica Lewinsky,'' Kristina whispered, smiling.

Enos laughed and squeezed her hand. Then the doctor walked over to the waiting room in the West Los Angeles hospital where more than a dozen people - family and friends of Kristina - were nervously waiting and praying to hear the words he was about to tell them.

The comeback kid was doing great, the doctor said. Better than anyone could hope.

Chris and Al Lopez hugged each other and let out sighs of relief. Step one - the biggest step - on their daughter's comeback trail was over, they knew.

There was still a long way to go, but maybe - just maybe - Kristina would be doing what she promised she would be doing come this September - even if no one really believed her.

Hold her head high and walk through the front doors of St. Genevieve's High School for her senior year - strong and healthy, able to wear her silver and blue school colors again and lead her schoolmates in cheers.

A far cry from the last time she was with the friends and teachers she had known at the school since first grade - rising to become one of the school's honor students and cheerleaders before her epileptic fits forced her to drop out in May and attend home school.

November nightmare

In November, Kristina ran crying from the student body after being told by school administrators to get off the sidelines of the homecoming football game because she was no longer a student there.

She had been warned earlier in the week she couldn't lead cheers at the game, but when the other cheerleaders saw her up in the stands dressed in her uniform, sitting with her parents, they waved her down at halftime to help them fill candy bags for the other team's cheerleaders.

It was important to her, this little bit of school camaraderie she could still hang on to. She missed her friends, missed her school. After all, she had done nothing wrong to leave it but get sick.

Surely, it would be OK just to stand on the sidelines with the other cheerleaders at halftime at the biggest game of the year.

She was wrong. It wasn't OK. In front of the whole student body and her parents, she was told to leave. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles would later uphold the administrators' decision to kick Kristina off the sidelines because she was no longer a student there.

``Students do not have the right or authority to countermand a decision by the administration,'' said the Rev. Gregory Coiro, a spokesman for the archdiocese. ``While Kristina might have thought it was OK to go down there because they (the other cheerleaders) asked her, she had already been told she couldn't (by school Principal Maria Denis).

``She shouldn't have been on the sidelines at all.''

When Kristina's parents and friends finally found her after she ran from the sidelines that night, she was sitting behind the bleachers, alone in the dark, crying.

I wrote at the time that I thought the school's administrators showed a pretty cold heart that night, certainly not a charitable one for a sick teen-age girl having her whole life come unglued because of uncontrollable epileptic fits.

I still think they were terribly wrong. No one in the administration at St. Genevieve's ever called or sent a note apologizing for that night, Chris and Al Lopez said.

Their daughter was hurt, angry and embarrassed by what happened to her, but she was also determined. She wasn't going to let a few adults defeat her.

``If my operations are a success, I want to return to St. Gen's and graduate with my class in 2000,'' she told me in November. ``That's my dream.''

Last week, the comeback kid took the first step in that dream.

``It really is remarkable what she has done,'' said Lynn Burlin, who befriended Kristina after she read the column. In 1995, Burlin, then 23, underwent similar operations to end her epileptic seizures.

``I saw a lot of myself in Kristina and wanted to help her through this period because I knew it would be tough,'' said Burlin, who works for the Epilepsy and Brain Mapping Program at Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena, one of the country's largest and most experienced comprehensive epilepsy treatment centers for children and adults.

Gaining courage

For the past few months, Burlin has been preparing Kristina for what would lie ahead and what to expect - ``telling her all the things the doctors don't tell you,'' Burlin said.

Kristina, resting on the couch at home Thursday - next to a vase with a dozen carnations and a get-well card sent by the administrators at St. Genevieve's, said Burlin gave her courage when she was very scared, which was most of the time.

``I kept thinking going into surgery, Lynn did it, I could do it,'' Kristina said. ``Be strong.''

But no one, not even Burlin and the doctors, ever imagined how strong this young girl can be when she sets her mind to it.

``They were calling her the miracle, comeback kid at Kaiser Hospital,'' Burlin said.

``It usually takes two to three weeks to recover enough to go home after these surgeries. Kristina was home in a week, which is very, very remarkable.''

Not to the comeback kid.

Her senior year of high school is coming up, and she doesn't have a lot of time to waste getting ready.

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2 Photos

PHOTO (1--Color) Recovering from surgery, Kristina Lopez can count on the support of Lynn Burlin, left, who underwent the same procedure, and parents Al and Chris.

(2--Color) Kristina Lopez, 16, recovers from brain surgery she hopes will alleviate her epilepsy and allow let to spend her senior year back at St. Genevieve's High.

John McCoy/Daily News