Dad reveals terror at horrific boat crash that nearly killed his son

Lying critically injured and heavily sedated in a hospital bed, 17-year-old Simon was gravely ill following the catalogue of horrific injuries he sustained in a high-speed crash on Southampton Water which left him unconscious, drowning and trapped in the upturned vessel.

He had been freed from the wreckage by his dad, who, despite being injured in the 70-mile-per-hour crash himself, had dived back below the water to pull him free before giving him mouth to mouth to bring him round.

With the help of two others on board, who were also hurt, they managed to gently pull a heavily-bleeding Simon from the freezing water and on to a friends boat which had raced to the scene to help.

Peter hugged him close, trying to keep him warm until rescue crews arrived.

All four were rushed to Southampton General Hospital in separate ambulances following the full-scale rescue operation just off Warsash at 8.20am on Wednesday May 13.

But it was there that Peter and his wife Fiona were told the grim news by doctors that their son had a zero per cent chance of survival – unless he received medical intervention from a rare and specialist team from London very quickly.

Today former Barton Peveril student Simon, now 18, is remarkably alive and well, and studying at university just like others his age – thanks to a piece of equipment called ECMO – Extra Corporeal Membrane Oxygenation – which ultimately saved his life.

And tonight he, along with his family, friends and hundreds of others, will celebrate that at a special fundraiser at Southampton Football Club – joined by many of the medical staff who brought him back from the brink.

Organised by Simon’s sister Laura-Jo, the Dredge family hope to raise vital awareness of the ECMO treatment – currently only available in five hospitals in the country, one of them being St Thomas’ in London where Simon was treated.

Peter, 53, a powerboating double world champion and European champion who has only recently got back on the water to race once again, said his daughter had wanted to do something to say thanks.

Talking exclusively for the first time about the crash, he described how the day began no different to any other as he and Simon, who had grown up around boats, went out on the water to test out a new one – but it quickly turned into a nightmare no parent would ever want to endure.

Having pushed the boat to speeds of 105 miles per hour, Peter had turned around before they reached the point where Southampton Water meets the Solent, and had slowed to between 60 and 70 mph when he spotted what looked like a dive buoy in the water ahead and took a sharp turn thinking there may be two divers just below the surface.

The powerboat hooked – the back end of it losing all grip – before it violently pulled to one side and flipped over.

Peter said: “Everything felt like it was happening in slow motion but it was most likely very quick. The guy in the front with me, also called Simon, was very calm about it all because we had many times undergone training. You’re actually not trapped, you’re upside down in your seat but you know how to get out through the hatch in the roof.

“He went out first and then I took a few deep breaths, and on my way to the surface checked the rear hatch where Simon and Lee had been sitting was open allowing them to get out.

“I couldn’t see very much at that point and the water was very cold – it was such a shock it took your breath away.

“I got to the surface and then did what you are trained to do, which is shout out and make sure everyone is out and ok. If you know your son is involved, he is of course the first one you shout out for. But he wasn’t there.”

Peter told how he, just like the others, was dressed in normal clothes and he was weighted down by jeans, fleece and life jacket as he quickly focussed on what to do.

He said: “I took several deep breaths as I mentally went through the plan, thinking about where the large dive bottles were should I need additional air, and then I went back under.

“It’s quite a long way to swim down wearing normal clothing and it wasn’t helped by the fact I had hurt myself quite badly.

“I found him and got him out and back up to the surface but he wasn’t breathing – it’s not a sight anyone wants to see. I cannot begin to explain how terrifying that situation was.”

Peter told how he managed to hold Simon with one hand, giving him mouth to mouth resuscitation before he began coughing and spluttering.

“I was holding him and could feel with my hand that his left arm was broken. He was struggling to breathe and so I inflated his lifejacket and we managed to lift him slightly out of the water, just enough so he wasn’t struggling against the cold water, before we lifted him into a friends boat that had arrived.

“I could see he had a head injury and there was blood pouring from places. In the distance I could see the RNLI coming from Calshot and a coastguard helicopter overhead and I just lay, hugged up to Simon, to try and stop him losing more heat.”

As the rescue operation continued, the dramatic accident, which had been captured on camera by one of several people who had lined the shore, awaiting the arrival of the world’s biggest container ship due in to port that morning, had already begun to make headlines locally and nationally. The news had reached family and friends on the other side of the world.

Peter, Simon and the two other crew were all placed in ambulances waiting on the shore in the car park of the Rising Sun pub, where Fiona and her sister had by then also arrived after learning the news.

Peter recalled: “At that stage Simon was whimpering and saying “help me” and he was clearly in some discomfort.

“We didn’t realise the extent of the many other injuries he had.”

At hospital, Peter discharged himself to enable him to join his wife as they waited for news of their son.

“We were told he was in intensive care and that the prognosis was zero unless a specialist team from London with an ECMO machine could get down. We were fortunate they could and we were not too far away.”

As well as being drowned, Simon had suffered a fractured vertebrae, a broken arm and collarbone, multiple breaks to his ribs while both of his lungs – one of which was punctured – had collapsed.

He was prepped in theatre awaiting the ECMO team who then placed tubes into his arteries to draw out blood – at a rate of six and a half litres every minute – as well as controlling carbon dioxide levels, temperature and oxygenating his blood.

Later that night Simon was transferred to St Thomas’ Hospital in London, where he remained sedated and on a ventilator while the ECMO machine helped his lungs to repair themselves.

Peter added: “We couldn’t see much of him as he lay there. Hi neck was in a collar, he had stuff all round his head, a ventilator in his mouth and his eyes taped shut.

“We spent three weeks there, learning more about the injuries he had that were helping him to mend.

“One of the biggest worries was if there had been any brain damage from the impact of the drowning. Waiting for him to come round was so hard.

“Wondering if your child is going to wake up different from before, if he can’t remember anything or if he will recognise you was incredibly hard.”

Peter, who is the technical director and co-founder of Warsash-based boat building firm Vector World, told how he could not rest until he knew Simon would recover.

“I will always know it was me driving that boat, that I made decisions that day and you can always make different ones. You are always going to feel guilty about that.

“I couldn’t sleep because every time I shut my eyes all I could see was my son not breathing.

“When they finally brought him round it was very traumatic, but it soon became obvious that he was still our Simon and that everything was going to be ok.”

With the ECMO system removed from his arteries, surgeons were able to carry out an MRI scan on his back and then operate, placing several metal screws in Simon’s back.

Nearly four weeks later, the Dredge family were able to return to Southampton where Simon received further medical care before he finally returned to the family home in Warsash.

Speaking about his son’s recovery, Peter, who had snapped the tendons in his right shoulder and knee in the boat crash, said Simon had chosen to mark his 18th birthday by visiting the medical team who saved him in London to say thankyou.

He said: “Simon has done amazingly well, he’s had a lot of follow up operation and physiotherapy and was able to start at University two months ago. For him this was a chance to return to normality and put the accident behind him.

“He has no real memory of anything since the night before it happened, when he went to the gym, but if you saw him, unless he took his top off you wouldn’t really know he had been in an accident at all.

“There is no doubt that what saved him was the ECMO machine for which we are eternally grateful.”

Peter is now back on the water, having competed and won the Cowes-Torquay-Cowes race in September – the longest offshore powerboat race in the world. Simon, accompanied by his sister Laura-Jo, was also back on the water that day, on the start boat to lift the start flag.

The wreckage of the white powerboat has now been shipped to Canada where it is being analysed in the hope that something can be learned about the structure following the impact on a vessel involved in a high-speed crash on the water.

We have set up a “just giving” page and every penny raised will be going to the ECMO department of St Thomas’ hospital trust. To see this page visit: https://www.justgiving.com/Laura-Dredge/