A dad has suffered amnesia after he was thrown to the ground – by a faulty HOVERBOARD.
Father-of-four Mark Tamlin, 39, was looking forward to spending the Christmas with his family and gave his oldest son a new hands free “swegway” device.
But when 12-year-old Owen Daniel opened the smart balance wheel – one of the must-have gifts of the year – he found it didn’t work properly.
Mark, of Chessington, Surrey, gave it a go himself and ended up hitting his head and suffered concussion – and now can’t remember Christmas.
The civil engineer said: “When the hoverboard arrived there was something wrong with it, it didn’t work properly and the online company I bought it from would only send me an video tutorial on how to fix it.
“I managed to get it working and wrapped it up for my son.
“My son came over after Boxing Day to open his Christmas presents and he said it wasn’t working properly.
“I tried to work out what was going on with it so jumped on and had a go myself. The next thing I know I’m in hospital.
“I don’t know what happened, but my sons told me that it started vibrating really fast, then it threw me up in the air and I hit the back of my head on the ground.”
Mark woke up in hospital after being driven there by his partner of nine years, Angela Taylor, who drove him to accident and emergency.
He says he now does not remember parts of Christmas Day, most of Boxing Day and anything from December 27 when the accident happened after sustaining the brain injury.
He said: “I still get headaches now, my memory isn’t effected now, I remember none of the day it happened, parts of Boxing Day and some of Christmas Day is a bit of a blur.
“The doctor said when I first come in he asked me what year it was and I apparently said 2010.
“When I came out of hospital I didn’t remember who got me what presents. I was asking my partner, what’s this?’ and she said, ‘that’s yours, it’s a present from my sister’.
“I still don’t remember much about the day, I only know what people have told me and from photos I’ve seen.”
Mark came home at around 4pm on December 28 and says he didn’t remember how he came to be in hospital.
Mark who also has another son, Max Tamlin, seven, said: “When I was thrown off it, both my son’s were screaming and crying, they went into the house, they were terrified.
“It’s lucky I was on it and not one of my sons, then it would have been a different story, one of them could have been seriously hurt.
“As my oldest son doesn’t live with me the 27th was supposed to be my Christmas Day with them, but I spent most of it in hospital so didn’t get to see them.”
Mark, who also has two daughters called Chloe Tamlin, 15, and Millie-Mai, five, bought the smart wheel balance from online retailer AliExpress.
