Caroline Buchanan sat silently in the passenger seat next to her fiance, struggling to breathe and hitting the scariest point in her life as she turned to her childhood friend and said.. "Im not ready to die" On the outside she was calm. Silent and focused - just like she is before a BMX race. She stayed like that for 5 hours until she got transferred to the city hospital.
On the inside her body was a mess. A broken nose, broken sternum, two collapsed lungs and dangerous bleeding around her heart.
"I was running on adrenaline. About 30 minutes outside of Canberra the ambulance guy called the hospital and he had a shaky, nervous voice," Buchanan said. "If you're a paramedic you've seen a lot of things and they handle themselves so well. I thought if he's nervous ... that's when I knew it was life-threatening."
The two-time Olympian and eight-time world champion was at a friend's farm when an off-road buggy rolled and caused the injuries. The driver was OK but Buchanan was in debilitating pain and struggling to breathe. She knew something was seriously wrong and that's when she started to fight.
After doing a BMX 'zine for ten years (1987 - 1996) FATBMX made it on the internet. The year was 1998. Here to stay.