BACK ON HER TOES : ROADWAY TRAGEDY NEARLY ENDED LIFE OF YOUNG DANCER.

Byline: Laurence Darmiento Daily News Staff Writer

Few people who saw Dani Espinosa on that terrible May night last year thought she had much of a chance.

The aspiring ballerina had fallen asleep at the wheel and had slammed head-on into an unforgiving light standard, crushing her Toyota Camry into a nearly unrecognizable wreck of crumpled metal.

While her younger sister Jaime had managed to scramble out of the car and flag down help, the petit 17-year-old lay slumped motionless with massive facial injuries, as well as a broken leg and ankle.

It took firefighters nearly an hour working furiously to cut her out of the car, but precious minutes had been lost in the time medical personnel call the ``Golden Hour.''

Treatment within an hour after injury dramatically boosts a patient's chance of survival. An hour after the accident, as she finally was being loaded into an ambulance, Dani's heart stopped beating. She had lapsed into full cardiac arrest.

``I pretty much felt like we were working on a lost cause,'' remembers paramedic Mitch Allen. ``They had hit that pole extremely hard. The steering wheel and the door was jammed. I was sure somebody had died.''

But Dani surprised them all, defying the odds with a heart seemingly out of proportion to her 95 pound, 5-foot-1-inch frame.

The teen lay in a coma for nearly a month before she regained consciousness.

She has shrugged off her brush with death - and five major surgeries - in a remarkable recovery that once again finds her pursuing her dream of dancing.

``It's amazing. She's like a miracle girl,'' said Kathy Johnson, who owns a dance studio where Dani has studied. ``I just couldn't believe it when she came to class. She is a dancer in her soul and spirit, and she knows it.''

Looking back now on May 13, 1995, Dani knows she was overtired and pushed herself beyond the limit. It was the day after the Saugus High School prom, not to mention the day before Mother's Day.

A dance student of nine years, Dani had been studying independently her junior year at The Learning Post, an alternative school that allowed her to take dance classes during the day.

``For weeks before I had been getting only four or five hours of sleep a night between school and rehearsals,'' the teen-ager now recalls. ``I did a performance the week before. I had been shopping for prom stuff.''

That day, a Saturday, friends were still over at the Espinosas' Saugus home after the prom the night before. Dani wanted to take a nap but instead went over to a friend's house and watched a video that night.

She and her sister were taking a friend home about 11:30 p.m. when all three fell asleep along Bouquet Canyon Road. At Cinema Drive, the road curves, but the Camry went straight ahead at 50 mph.

``It hit with such force, the front end literally wrapped itself around the pole,'' recounts her mother Jeanne. ``They all were wearing seat belts, or they wouldn't have lived.''

Dani's mother arrived at the accident scene on the heels of the paramedics, called there by a passer-by after sister Jaime had given them the number.

``They had Jaime strapped on a board, but they couldn't get Dani out of the car. We didn't know if we should go to the hospital or stay there. Dani had a gaping wound from one eye to another.''

Jeanne Espinosa still cries when she talks about watching her daughter go into cardiac arrest. Paramedics revived the girl and raced off to Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital. She now knows trauma patients whose hearts stop have a slim chance of survival.

Dani remembers none of this. Her memory ends with the Saturday morning after the prom, and then waking up in an unfamiliar hospital room with medical personnel milling about.

Thankfully, her mother was at her side.

``I remember my mom immediately told me I was in a car accident. The first thing I asked was if anybody was killed. I know I couldn't live with myself knowing that. She told me I was hurt the worst.''

Jaime fractured her breastbone and suffers from neck, back and jaw injuries, but is back as a lifeguard this summer at the Hurricane Harbor water park.

Their friend, a foreign exchange student, fractured her skull. A protective plate has since been removed and the girl has healed, Jeanne Espinosa said.

But it has been Dani who has faced the lengthiest recovery. She had been strapped in, but always drove with the seat pulled forward to accommodate her petit frame.

Smashing into the steering wheel, she broke every bone in her face. The force of the impact drove the engine back into the passenger compartment, breaking her right ankle and left foot.

``My face is now being held together by titanium,'' Dani said with an even tone. ``The bones in my ankle were knocked out of alignment; the surgeon had to put a screw in there.

Within days of regaining consciousness, though, Dani was undergoing basic physical therapy, learning how to walk with crutches. And as soon as her ankle cast was off, Dani was back in the dance studio, taking baby steps.

``It was pretty painful, but I just worked through the pain,'' she said. ``But I don't limp, and I have full range of movement in my ankle. It's still a tiny bit weaker, but it's only been a year, and I am pretty back to normal.''

Johnson, the dance teacher, hung a pair of dance shoes and leotards over Dani's intravenous feed while she was in the hospital to inspire her. She is still astounded by the way things turned out - as well as Dani's matter-of-fact attitude.

``She talks very openly: `I didn't have a nose, but now I have a nose,' '' Johnson said. ``She just accepts the cards she was dealt. For her to keep up is amazing. We are very proud of her.''

And Dani still talks that way, even with another major procedure ahead of her. Her left eye is recessed, causing double vision for which her right eye compensates. A surgery is in the works to correct that.

``It threw my balance off, but my turns are coming back now. The surgeon wants to bring my left eye forward. The surgeon makes it sound like its not a big deal,'' she said. ``We'll see.''

But even she is surprised sometimes at her own strength. She remembers watching television broadcasts of accident scenes and wondering how anyone could deal with that.

``It's only been a year, and I've come this far. I am really surprised that I have,'' she admits.

Last month, Dani made an appearance at a benefit for Newhall Memorial's trauma unit, one of only a dozen left in the county. Her family credits the unit with saving her life.

Paramedic Allen was there to accept an award on behalf of his fire station for their work during the Northridge Earthquake. He thought he recognized the girl from the accident, but thought she was one of the passengers.

``I couldn't believe it was the girl we had worked on. I thought somebody had died in the accident. Once they go into cardiac arrest, it's like a 99 percent fatality rate.

``But she said, `Oh no. Nobody died. I was the one who was the worst hurt.' I told her I couldn't believe she was sitting here right now,'' Allen said.

Despite her life-threatening injuries, Dani managed to graduate from high school on time. Indeed, she graduated a month early and this summer is studying ballet at the Long Beach Ballet Arts Center.

She said dance always will be part of her life, but she's thinking about studying body mechanics. She plans to attend College of the Canyons in the fall and later transfer to Cal State Northridge.

Hard bitten by experience, these days Dani won't get in the car with a driver she even suspects is tired, and she certainly won't drive that way herself. She offers that much in advice to others.

But despite her double vision, it's the new, different way she sees the world that she wishes others could understand.

``It's hard to describe,'' she said. ``I'm not so quick to take things for granted anymore. Some things that seem so simple, after an accident like this, you just appreciate them a lot more.''

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2 Photos

Photo: (1--color) Dani Espinosa, who nearly died in a ca r wreck 15 months ago, has worked hard to regain her balance and ballet form.

(2) Dani Espinosa studies dance and enrolled in the Los Angeles Classical Ballet summer program.

Bob Halvorsen/Daily News