“GNAAS is absolutely brilliant and having this happen to me has totally shown me to enjoy my life more – trivial things just don’t matter at all.”
A man from Newcastle has vowed to enjoy life more following a motorbike accident that left him with catastrophic injuries.
57-year-old David Hobkirk of Dinnington was on a ride out with six friends back in April 2018 when his motorbike collided with a fence and then landed on top of him.
David said: “It started out like any other day. I wasn’t planning to go out on my motorbike, but my son who’s also called David had just passed his test so asked if I fancied a ride.
“It’s funny as a couple of weeks earlier my son had fallen off his bike by trying to keep up with me so I thought on this ride out I would slow it down, yet it was me who fell off.”
The team of riders were on their way to Bellingham and travelling at around 40mph when the accident happened.
David said: “The weather conditions were perfect. It was dry and clear.
“We were coming up to a bend in the road, I moved over to the left-hand side of the road and when we were halfway around the bend, for some reason I put the brakes on the bike.
“My front wheel straightened, and I clipped the kerb, falling from my bike and bouncing through a fence, and then my bike fell on top of me.”
Since the accident, David has retraced his steps and been up the same stretch of road many times but still has no memory of how the accident occurred.
David said: “I have had the same bike since 2004 and I haven’t had an accident.
“Everyone who saw it happen stopped and came to help. The farmer from the field nearby knew our exact location so he was able to tell the ambulance whereabouts we were and there was also an army medic who stopped.”
The Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) was immediately tasked to the scene where they administered life-saving critical care interventions to help save David’s life.
David’s son, 30-year-old, David said: “Immediately after it happened, I didn’t think it was that bad but when someone said the air ambulance is coming, I knew. Then my dad started to be sick blood.
“When GNAAS landed they were so calm and made us all feel really at ease.”
GNAAS flew David to the Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI) in Newcastle and that’s when the full extent of his injuries was understood.
David suffered a fractured eye socket, fractured cheekbones, a broken jaw and collarbone, three cracked vertebrae, 11 broken ribs, collapsed lungs, a smashed left leg, as well as cuts all over his body.
David said: “I was at the RVI for a week and then rushed to the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle for an operation where I stayed for three weeks, then I was transferred back to the RVI for another two weeks.
“I was off work for eight months in total.”
David added: “I think about the accident a lot and I am just about ready to go back on my bike now.
“GNAAS is absolutely brilliant and having this happen to me has totally shown me to enjoy my life more – trivial things just don’t matter at all.”
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