A gran fell to her death from a cliff in a tragic mobility scooter accident during a family holiday which left her severely injured grandson trapped in hospital. Janet Hobbs tragically died after she lost control of the mobility scooter she and her grandson Alfie Nicholas had been riding in Benidorm, with the scooter crashing into a road barrier, throwing her over it.
Eleven-year-old Alfie was sent to hospital with numerous injuries, with his parents Jordan Hedley and Tom Nicholas unaware of what happened, having been back home in Cambridge at the time as reported by The Mirror. Alfie had been enjoying the holiday with his grandparents Janet and John Nicholas, with him and his grandmother making their way home from a trip to see the Cross of Benidorm when tragedy struck on August 24.
The grandmother and grandson had been riding on a two-seated mobility scooter with Janet sat in front, and Alfie behind. Mum Jordan Hedley said: “Alfie was on holiday with his grandparents, me and Tom were back home. They were on a two-seater mobility scooter, his nana was sat on the front and Alfie was sat on the back. They were coming downhill going back to their hotel, they’d been to see the Benidorm Cross.
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“It lost control going round a bend and went straight across a road into some barriers. She got flung from it and went straight over, there was a cliff edge, and she went straight off a cliff edge. My son, thank god, hit the barrier at some speed ... leading to his injuries.”
Alfie was left with a broken jaw, broken arm, cracked skull and a blood clot, as well as being covered in cuts and bruises. Local police are now investigating to see if there was a mechanical fault that led to the scooter racing out of control. Jordan, 30, and partner Tom Nicholas, 34, thought they were the victim of a sick joke when someone rang from Janet’s phone saying she had died.
Jordan said: “We got a phone call on the Wednesday afternoon. We thought it was a bit of a joke because someone phoned off my mother-in-law’s phone saying she was dead. We didn’t really quite understand it.
“Then we tried calling Alfie and Grandad and couldn’t get any answer so we were panicking. Then we had a call explaining what had happened and at first they said Alfie was absolutely fine and it was just her in the accident then a little while later we heard Alfie was in intensive care and we got the first flight out.”
However, things didn’t get easier when the terrified parents got out to Benidorm. They weren’t made aware of the full extent of little Alfie’s injuries and were horrified and distraught to see their beloved son in hospital in such a way.
After meeting someone from the British consulate, they were rushed to Alicante General Hospital where Alife was being treated. Jordan said: “We were walking in there not expecting anything because we had just been told there was a break to his jaw. We were really not expecting to see our son like that. It was really difficult. It was very upsetting.”
Alfie had to be transferred to a different hospital briefly for successful jaw surgery, but was moved back for further observation. As things stand, the devastated parents don’t know when they’ll be able to get their son home again.
The mum said: “We’ve tried everything to get him back home and carry on hospital treatments there. They said the surgery needed to be here and they had to keep observations on him because of his skull fracture, we think by the sounds of it we’ll have to stay here for another week or two. At the moment they’re not allowing him to fly.”
However, only one of the parents can stay with Alfie overnight which has been “incredibly difficult splitting up like that” as Tom has had to bounce between hotels before rushing back to his son in the day. The mum added: “We’re slowly getting lower and lower on the money, but the money doesn’t concern us.”
In light of the accident, Alfie's other grandmother, Loraine Trent-Hedley, has started a fundraiser to help the family get through this difficult time. Click here to visit their fundraising page.
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