A US student who had recently celebrated her 21st birthday while studying abroad was seriously injured in Spain’s devastating train crash.
Leah Silver-Fajardo suffered a broken pelvis, knee and femur, multiple fractured ribs, bruised lungs, burns and cuts when two high-speed trains collided near Urda, around 80 miles south of Madrid.
The crash on Wednesday, 28 October, killed 69 people and left more than 100 requiring hospital treatment.
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Just three weeks earlier, on 7 October, Leah had marked her birthday in Italy surrounded by relatives and friends from her study-abroad programme, as reported by Need To Know.
The junior at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo was spending the semester in Florence.
Her family said she had been pursuing her dream of exploring Europe and experiencing other cultures when her trip turned into a “nightmare”.
Leah, originally from Seattle, Washington, underwent surgery on her knee and is expected to require another operation to repair her pelvis.
Doctors discovered the broken femur in X-rays after she was moved out of intensive care.
Her mother, Nicole, said Leah had endured severe pain but had begun smiling and eating.
She said: “We know it’s going to be a long recovery and that is scary for her, but we’re taking it hour by hour.”
Leah had expected to spend Halloween with friends in Barcelona during her midterm break.
Instead, she remains in a Spanish hospital at the beginning of what her family expects to be a lengthy physical and emotional recovery.
According to the family, they did not immediately know whether Leah had survived or to which hospital she had been taken.
Friends from her programme searched hospitals until they located her and contacted the family.
Her parents and sister Hannah have since travelled to Spain to remain beside her.
Leah is studying neuropsychology and hopes to pursue work involving brain research, psychopharmacology and behavioural health.
Her family described her as an active young woman who loves football, running, hiking and travelling.
Her study-abroad programme is covering many immediate medical costs and her eventual transport home once she is fit to travel.
The collision happened at approximately 8.53am when a Renfe AVE service struck the rear of a stationary Iryo train on the Madrid-Seville line.
More than 500 passengers were travelling aboard the two trains.
A preliminary investigation found that the Renfe train may have been travelling at between 160kmh and 200kmh when it struck the other service.
However, Spain’s independent accident investigation authority has stressed that its findings remain preliminary and all possible causes are still being examined.
The trains’ black boxes have been secured as part of both technical and judicial investigations.
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