KEY POINTS:
Katherine Prumm's motocross career could be over but that doesn't concern the two-time world champion.
All that matters right now is whether she will walk freely again.
The 20-year-old has emerged with her spirits mending but her spine still tender after three hellish days in North Shore Hospital
leading up to a six-hour operation yesterday.
A training accident in West Auckland last Thursday saw Prumm fracture her back in three places, endure a nightmare ambulance experience and then watch on helplessly for several days as medical staff assessed a delicate surgery scenario.
But it is the memory of the accident itself that is most vivid for the Pukekohe rider, who jumped to the top of the world as a teenager in 2006 and 2007.
After mistiming a jump, she landed heavily and plummeted 3m off the track, landing head-first next to a creek with the bike crashing on to her back.
"I couldn't move my legs for about a minute, it was the most terrifying thing to go through," Prumm told today from her hospital bed.
"I never, ever want to be in a wheelchair and that was just running through my mind over and over.
"I was a bit out of it at the time but my friend said that I was screaming and screaming."
Fortunately, training partner and New Zealand junior rider Ethan Martens was on hand, but there was drama to follow when he attempted to call an ambulance.
All vehicles from nearby stations were attending a traffic accident, leaving Prumm lying in agony for 40 minutes as an ambulance made its way from Te Atatu.
"When the ambulance did finally arrive, it took another 15 minutes to get me out of the track because they can't go over bumps with a spinal injury, so that was pretty terrifying.
"They didn't want to rush so it was another hour to get me to the hospital.
"It would be the scariest thing I've ever gone through and it's the worst pain I've ever had."
Upon arrival at the hospital she was seen by five doctors and after a multitude of scans and X-rays, surgeons decided on the best way to operate on the three fractured vertebrae, none of which were consecutive.
They fused each of the unstable vertebrae to stable ones above and below.
"It (the operation) took a lot of thought and they didn't know what was going to happen," she said.
"Up until today I was pretty freaked out but as far as I'm aware it has gone well.
"I'm still flat on my back and I'll be fitted with a brace to wear for the next three months."
Prumm is to attempt sitting up tomorrow but beyond that she has no idea what her future holds in terms of mobility, let alone whether she will ever return to the sport she loves.
She had been training in preparation for a tilt at the 2009 world title.
Her 2008 campaign began promisingly when she signed a lucrative deal with Yamaha but a knee injury and broken collarbone ended her hopes of a third crown.
Now a far more serious injury may bring the end to a career that promised plenty.
"As far as recovery goes, I haven't really been told too much yet, about walking or riding," she said.
"I think I'm more anxious to find out whether I'll be all right or not.
"Not a lot else matters at the moment."
- NZPA
