It was supposed to be the trip of a lifetime.
From her home on Bondi Beach to exploring the sights of Europe, Brazilian-born Caroline Laner Breure set off with her then-boyfriend for a three-week adventure.
They landed in London and travelled to the glorious coastline of Croatia before stepping foot on the streets of Barcelona, Spain.
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Four months later, Caroline woke, mummified in bandages, the beeping of medical equipment echoing around her hospital room.
The 38-year-old had been flung 13 metres into the air when she was struck by a speeding police car in Spain.
Her skull was crushed — her brain virtually torn from where it should have been — and her body battered.
Caroline remembers nothing.
“I don’t remember anything from Barcelona at all, which still seems really strange,” she tells 7Life of the moment her life was shattered.
“If I close my eyes, there’s just a blur of images and feelings from our holiday in Europe.
“But I’m honestly not sure if this is a true memory or just something I imagined because I saw a photo of myself doing this.”
It was September 9, 2019, when a Spanish pedestrian light flickered green and Caroline stepped out onto the crossing.
She barely made it onto the street when a police car hit her at speed, sending her flying off the bonnet and propelling her 13 metres.
She suffered crushing, life-threatening injuries.
Caroline’s mother raced from her home in Brazil to be by her critically injured daughter’s side.
With Caroline in a coma, doctors gave her just a five per cent chance of survival.
Should she make it through, they said, she would be in a permanent vegetative state.
“I feel especially heartbroken for my mother, and the terrible pain my accident caused her,” Caroline says.
“But she never gave up on me, even when the doctors kept telling her I was going to die.
“She would just say, ‘You don’t know my Caroline, she’ll prove you wrong’.”
As a result of the crash, Caroline’s brain had dislodged so severely inside her skull that it had left large lesions in multiple areas of her brain.
She was left with multiple neurological conditions, meaning she was unable to understand language and had no knowledge of her accident or medical condition.
Despite this, Caroline defied doctors’ low expectations of survival.
And after four months in a coma, she finally opened her eyes — to be met by her mother’s smiling face.
The severely injured woman continued her slow and steady fight for life, later re-learning how to walk and talk.
But, despite being continuously told about the crash, the gravity of what she had survived never sank in.
“Even when I finally opened my eyes, I wasn’t aware of my surroundings at all,” she says.
She underwent numerous gruelling surgeries, and, each day, little by little, she retook control of her life.
It wasn’t until the first anniversary of the shocking crash that she finally understood what had happened.
She was back in Sydney with her mum and her stepdad, when her stepdad explained the importance of the date.
Caroline had been told the story over and over again but, exactly 12 months later, it rang true at last.
“For some reason, my brain decided that this was the day that it finally stuck,” she says.
“I was shocked by this news, but then I looked in the mirror and knew that it was true.
“For the first time, I saw my terrible injuries as they really were.
“I could see all the scars.
“I could tell that my face had changed shape and that my eyes weren’t looking in the same direction any more.”
Staring in the mirror, Caroline traced her scars as tears filled her eyes.
But, she says, in this moment she felt stronger than ever.
“I should be dead, but I was given a second chance,” she says, adding she has ongoing medical treatment as she continues to rebuild her life.
“I’ve lost track of how many medical procedures I’ve had and how many physical therapy sessions I’ve completed.
“I can’t even remember how many times I’ve lost balance and fallen over in public.
“But I refuse to feel embarrassed any more.”
Some two years after the dramatic, life-altering events in Spain, Caroline returned to Europe to begin retracing her steps — even returning to her hospital room in Barcelona — in the hope of jogging her memory.
She is proud of the immense obstacles she has overcome, and about the fact she has launched her own business, an ethical shoe company she calls No Saints.
“Every day is a new battle and sometimes I win, sometimes I lose,” she says.
“Either way, I continually have to push myself to not give up, to get dressed, walk out the door with my head up, and try again.
“And so that’s exactly what I do.”
Caroline now bravely shares her story of incredible survival, saying her brain injury is “more than a broken mind”.
The remarkable woman wants other survivors of traumatic brain injuries to know there is light at the end of the tunnel.
“My recovery hasn’t always been a fun ride,” she says.
“There have been moments I wished I’d died on that road in Barcelona.
“But I refuse to give up on my life and my dreams.”
To those recovering from physical trauma, Caroline has some very simple advice.
“Please be kind to yourself,” she says.
“Try to be patient.”
Broken Girl by Bradley Trevor Greive and Caroline Laner Breure is out now.