Teen shattered after present lands him in hospital

Brayden Bullivant's early Christmas present put him into Hawke's Bay Hospital for Christmas.

The 14-year-old crashed his Suzuki DR250 motorcycle at the weekend leaving him with two broken arms.

He received the motorcycle early "because he went on and on about it", father Tony Bullivant said.

Brayden had already burned his leg on the exhaust so his father was extra vigilant as Brayden rode it off-road near their Napier home on Saturday.

"He was supposed to stay in the range where I could see him," Mr Bullivant said. "He hit the gas, went too fast and came off. There was a loud crash - I was 800m away and I heard it."

Brayden said he was thrown from the bike spinning and things became "like slow motion".

"I went to put my hand down with my eyes shut - I think that's when I broke my arm," he said. "I could see a head - some lady - I yelled for help and she covered my leg up and called an ambulance. She called three times because her phone died - so she had to grab someone else's."

Meanwhile Mr Bullivan said he was running around trying to find his son. "I thought the worst. It was a big relief when I saw him move. I saw his broken arm straight away - it was all swollen up."

Brayden broke both bones in one arm, shattered the elbow in the other arm and grazed his knee to the bone.

His mother Terri Bullivan said he was miserable when doctors told him he could not go home for Christmas, after which several days were planned at Whirinaki where he could ride his motorcycle on the beach with visiting relatives from Auckland.

Brayden said it looked to be his worst Christmas.

But Brayden's progress has enabled doctors to reassess Christmas Day.

Occupational therapists established his family were able to transfer Brayden to a wheelchair, enabling him to spend Christmas morning at home.

On the hospital's Christmas menu was roast lamb with mint jelly or gravy, roast chicken and gravy served with mashed potato, roasted vegetables and minted peas. Dessert was Christmas pudding, custard or pavlova, with berry coulis and cream.

While Brayden will have an idle holiday period, his father won't.

"I have to replace the whole front end - forks, bars and wheel - he's bent the whole lot. He was lucky he was wearing a full face helmet."