A heartbroken mother has recalled the tragic phone call she received after her son was gravely injured in a motorcycle explosion before he died at hospital.
Max Knight, 5, was with his family’s property in Murphys Creek, west of Brisbane, on Father’s Day last year when tragedy struck.
The young boy was riding his Yamaha Peewee 50 bike when his dad, Harley Knight, stopped to refuel his tank with a jerry can.
A fire broke out – possibly due to the engine being too hot – causing an explosion which left both both severely injured.
Max was flown to the Queensland Children’s Hospital where he died from severe burns to more than 90 per cent of his body the following day.
On the one year anniversary of the tragedy, his mother Emma Whybird said she hasn’t stopped thinking about her son and the horrific day.
She remembered thinking a call from Mr Knight was ‘a joke’ before everything changed when hearing Max in excruciating pain in the background.
‘He was supposed to come home to me and all I could hear was Max screaming,’ she told the Courier Mail.
The mother of five-year-old Max Knight (pictured) has recalled him screaming in pain on a phone call shortly after being gravely injured in a tragic accident last Father’s Day
Despite also receiving burns to roughly 40 per cent of his body, mostly on the face, chest and arms, Mr Knight told Ms Whybird to fly directly to Brisbane.
She said she and her family sat in a private room for a hospital while enduring a gruelling wait for results Max’s urgent operation.
‘The doctor came down and said that there was nothing they could do to help him, because the burns were that severe that it was not survivable,’ Ms Whybird said.
‘And when we got to go see him, he was just covered from head to toe, like head to ankle in bandages, and he was on life support.
‘I just had to sit there and hold his hand.’
Ms Whybird is still in shock from Max’s sudden death and celebrated what would have been his 6th birthday on August 10.
On the one year anniversary of the tragedy, his mother Emma Whybird said she hasn’t stopped thinking about her son (both pictured) and the horrific day
She said that some days are ‘very hard’ and that her tears ‘have been flowing a lot’ in the lead up to the anniversary.
The distraught mother remembered her son as the boisterous and sweet ‘light of my life’.
‘Max was just a brilliant little kid, and if any time I was upset, he would always come over and give me a hug and tell me it’s going to be okay,’ she said.
‘When he smiled, you’d tell him to smile, he’d put his head on the side with the with his tongue hanging out. It was very cute.’
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk