Kiwi speedway star Andrew Buchanan has told of the desperate trackside battle to save his wife’s life after she tumbled from their sidecar and directly into the path of two motorbikes following at around 100kmh.
Buchanan and wife Philippa Burns, in her planned last race meeting, were competing in the 2014 Australian Sidecar Championship when the horror accident occurred.
The Palmerston North rider was attempting a passing move at the Kurri Kurri Speedway Club track, 150km north of Sydney.
“We just came out of turn four and I thought I would have a crack underneath them and that door closed,” Buchanan said.
“So I went around them and I just touched the wall pretty much and then I shut down.”
But the momentum caused Burns, 45, to fall from the passenger seat of the sidecar, in front of the following race vehicles which couldn’t avoid her.
Buchanan, 45, was initially unaware of his wife’s spill, and continued down the track before coming to the terrifying realisation.
“A couple of bikes just pretty much barrel-rolled her down the track . . . they went over her completely,” he said.
“She was under both of them for about 20 metres . . .
“I ended up about 30 metres away from her. When I turned around [and she wasn’t moving] I knew we were in trouble. Then it was . . . into panic mode after that.
“When I got [to where his wife was lying] I knew she wasn’t breathing at all.”
Several paramedics joined Buchanan in rushing to Burns’ side.
She wasn’t breathing and her neck had swollen so severely her safety helmet couldn’t initially be removed. Buchanan said by the time they could get it off, she hadn’t “been breathing for a minimum of three to four minutes”.
Burns was eventually revived trackside by the paramedic team, a feat Buchanan is sure saved his wife.
She was airlifted by rescue helicopter to Newcastle’s John Hunter Hospital in critical condition, and then put into an induced coma.
Trauma specialists diagnosed dislocated and fractured C2 and C3 vertebrae, head injuries, a badly fractured pelvis and multiple breaks in her right arm.
“The hospital that she ended up at . . . we are very fortunate that they had one of the best neurosurgeons in Australia,” Buchanan said.
Four days after the March 29 crash, surgeons operated to plate and screw Burns’ two badly damaged vertebrae.
A second neck operation was later required to place a bone graft in the front of the vertebrae after the two discs were not knitting together as hoped.
“Basically her whole neck had stretched because the spinal cord had stretched,” Buchanan said.
Doctors at the hospital later told the Kiwi racer couple it was a medical miracle that Burns’ spinal cord hadn’t been snapped.
“They don’t know how it wasn’t . . . they just can’t explain it,” Buchanan said.
“They just said that she is extremely lucky.”
Burns also had operations to plate and screw multiple fractures in her pelvis and right forearm.
She flew from Sydney to Wellington on Wednesday, accompanied by two nurses. She was then taken to Palmerston North Hospital by ambulance where she is expected to remain for at least six weeks.
Buchanan said his wife faced an estimated 12-month recovery period.
Doctors who treated her across the Tasman were “positive” she would make a full recovery. She has already started rehab.
Nerve damage meant Burns had lost feeling in half of her tongue and “is having problems swallowing and talking”.
“And she gets tired really easily; two minutes of talking and she needs to go and have a sleep,” Buchanan said.
The Australian Sidecar Championship was always meant to be Burns’ last meeting before retiring from sidecar racing.
Buchanan’s own racing career was now on the backburner. His priority for the next year would be caring for his badly injured wife.
He said he and his wife realised their sport was potentially dangerous.
But he added: “We all know the risks, but you never expect it [a bad accident] to happen. We are very lucky to come out of it on the right side.”
SUPPORT HAS COME FROM EVERYWHERE
Andrew Buchanan says his family is indebted to the speedway community on both sides of the Tasman for rallying around them in their time of need.
Fans and racers from New Zealand and Australia have raised thousands of dollars for the family after Philippa Burns suffered life-threatening injuries in the race crash in New South Wales in March.
Wellwishers had also offered to help out on the family’s Manawatu farm.
And while Buchanan was at his wife’s hospital bedside in Australia before their return to New Zealand, he received numerous offers of accommodation and loan vehicles.
“It has just been unbelievable. The support has come from everywhere,” Buchanan told Sunday News.
“The speedway clubs in New Zealand and Australia have been absolutely brilliant. There have been fundraising meetings . . . all the places that we have raced [in Australia].”
A medical insurance policy will cover much of the hospital costs. But the family will face a bill for ambulances, the emergency helicopter which airlifted a critically injured Burns to hospital and the medivac back to New Zealand.
Buchanan said he would leave it up to Burns to decide if monies raised for her care would go towards that bill, or be set aside for a trust fund to aid other seriously injured speedway competitors.
Trust Fund for Phillipa Burns: 06 0589 0544560 01
