A heartbroken mother has recalled the tragic phone call she received after her son was seriously injured in a motorbike explosion before dying in hospital.
Max Knight, 5, was at his family’s property in Murphys Creek, west of Brisbane, on Father’s Day last year when the tragedy occurred.
The young man was riding his Yamaha Peewee 50 motorcycle when his father, 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 that left both of them seriously injured.
Max was airlifted 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 has not stopped thinking about her son and that horrible day.
She recalled thinking a call from Mr Knight was “a joke” before everything changed when she heard Max in excruciating pain in the background.
“He was supposed to come home with me and all I could hear was Max screaming,” she told the Courier mail.
The mother of five-year-old Max Knight (pictured) recalled him screaming in pain on a phone call shortly after he was seriously injured in a tragic accident last Father’s Day.
Despite suffering burns to 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 sitting in a private hospital room as they endured a gruelling wait for the results of Max’s urgent operation.
“The doctor came down and said there was nothing they could do to help him because the burns were so severe that he was not going to survive,” Whybird said.
“And when we went to see him, he was covered from head to toe, from head to ankles in bandages, and he was on life support.
“I just had to sit there and hold his hand.”
Ms Whybird is still in shock over Max’s sudden death and celebrated what would have been his sixth birthday on August 10.
On the first anniversary of the tragedy, his mother, Emma Whybird, said she has not stopped thinking about her son (both pictured) and the horrific day.
She said some days are “very hard” and her tears “have been flowing a lot” in the run-up to the anniversary.
The distraught mother remembered her son as the boisterous and sweet “light of my life.”
“Max was a bright kid and if I was ever upset, he would always come and give me a hug and tell me everything was going to be okay,” she said.
“When he smiled, you’d tell him to smile, and he’d tilt his head to the side with his tongue sticking out. It was very cute.”
