Mother reveals single phone call that changed her life after her son was killed in a horrific motorcycle accident on Father’s Day
A heartbroken mother recalls the tragic phone call she received after her son was seriously injured in a motorcycle explosion, later dying in hospital.
Max Knight, 5, was at his family’s Murphys Creek property, west of Brisbane, on Father’s Day last year when tragedy struck.
The boy was riding his Yamaha Peewee 50 when his father, Harley Knight, stopped to fill up his tank with a jerry can.
A fire broke out, possibly because the engine had overheated. An explosion occurred, seriously injuring both men.
Max was flown to Queensland Children’s Hospital, where he died the next day from severe burns to more than 90 percent of his body.
On the first anniversary of the tragedy, his mother Emma Whybird said she still thinks about her son and the terrible day.
She remembers thinking Mr Knight’s call was ‘a joke’, but everything changed when she heard the sound of Max in the background causing excruciating pain.
“He was supposed to come home, but all I heard was Max screaming,” she told the Courier post.
The mother of five-year-old Max Knight (pictured) remembers him screaming in pain during a phone call shortly after he was seriously injured in a tragic accident on Father’s Day last year.
Despite suffering burns over about 40 per cent of his body, mainly to his face, chest and arms, Mr Knight told Ms Whybird to fly straight to Brisbane.
She said she and her family were in a separate room in the hospital as they agonizingly waited for the results of Max’s emergency surgery.
“The doctor came down and said there was nothing more that could be done for him because the burns were so severe that he was not survivable,” Whybird said.
‘And when we got to him, he was covered from head to toe, head to ankle, in bandages and on a ventilator.
“I just had to sit there and hold his hand.”
Mrs Whybird is still in shock over Max’s sudden death and celebrated his sixth birthday on August 10.
On the first anniversary of the tragedy, his mother Emma Whybird said she hasn’t stopped thinking about her son (both pictured) and the terrible day
She said some days are “very difficult” and that “many tears have been shed” in the run-up to the anniversary.
The distraught mother remembered her son as the exuberant and sweet “light of my life.”
“Max was just an amazing kid. If I was ever upset, he would always come to me, give me a hug and tell me it was going to be okay,” she said.
“When he laughed, you told him to laugh, he would put his head on the side with his tongue out. It was so cute.”