Family’s positivity shines after Leon Hobby’s freak mowing accident
A much-loved family with ties to the Sunshine Coast and Gympie communities are determined to stay positive after their youngest son lost his foot in a freak mowing accident.
Sunshine Coast
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It was meant to be a bit of family fun – Gympie dad Dane Hobby mowing the lawn with his two sons Leon, 1, and Vincent, 2.
But in a split second the beautiful bonding session turned into tragedy when little Leon slipped off the ride-on mower and caught his foot under the cutting deck.
Leon was rushed to the Sunshine Coast University Hospital after the accident on the Cara property on April 24 and later the Queensland Children’s Hospital to undergo urgent surgery on his foot.
Sadly, despite doctors’ best efforts the one-year-old’s foot bone and ligaments had been cut and needed a full amputation at his ankle joint.
Mr Hobby who works in Nambour said his son lost a lot of blood because of the scary injury.
“You just go straight to the worst, thinking how much blood has he lost? Are they going to be able to save his leg or his foot,” he said.
After Leon spent two nights in the intensive care unit and received a blood transfusion the family were able to drive home on Saturday, but still have an anxious wait ahead of them.
Mr Hobby said their main priority was healing Leon’s wound but said there was a possibility he may need another surgery.
“If the bone doesn’t accept the procedure they will have to take more off which would be a below the knee amputation,” he said.
The Nambour Farrows Customs worker of six years said the family wanted to “stay positive”.
“When you are in hospital you are surrounded by people that are worse off than you …,” he said.
“We are very blessed, Leon is going to live a healthy life without a foot, if it was hand or an arm or a head it would have been a different story.
“We still have an amazing family, a nice house, we have good friends around us we are not dead in our life by any means.”
Mr Hobby said Leon, who he described as a “tough little boy with a big personality”, wouldn’t be slowed down by his amputation.
“He will have a prosthetic, he will be able to walk on it, he is a little trooper,” he said.
“This won’t slow him down, he will back to his normal self running a muck keeping his mum and I on our toes that's for sure.”
Mr Hobby said he and his wife were incredibly thankful for the countless messages of love and support.
“We are definitely leaning on each other a lot and our close friends and family, but we have to keep a strong front for the kids because when we are we are upset they pick up on it,” he said.
A GoFundMe page created by a family friend to help ease any financial burden on the family has raised $12,380 in less than a week.
“We have had so much support from the Sunshine Coast and Gympie area, it's very heartwarming … and makes a huge difference,” Mr Hobby said
He said the donated funds could help Leon secure valuable prosthetics throughout his life.
“If we don’t get onto the NDIS support system every prosthetics he gets in the future will have to be paid for by us and they vary from $1000 to $10,000 depending on what he needs,” Mr Hobby said.
“He could need three or four a year because he has so much growing to do.”
The family will start looking at prosthetics after Leon’s stitches are taken out in two weeks.
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