Father, 48, was almost castrated after getting his testicles caught on a piece of metal when he slid off the back of his boat

Pete Lovett was left dangling by his scrotum from a steel hook after slip

He was airlifted to Southampton General Hospital for three-hour operation

The roofer, from Wolvey, Warwickshire, says he's 'lucky' as could have died

The father-of-one now hopes to raise £10,000 for Hamble Lifeboat crew



A father-of-one has told how his testicles were left dangling five inches down his thigh after he slid off his boat and got them caught on a hook.

Roofer Pete Lovett, 48, was enjoying a day out on his motorboat off Calshot in Hampshire when he decided to have a swim and slipped down off the boat into the sea.

But as he did so, he got his private parts caught on a steel bracket used to carry the jet ski - nearly castrating him and leaving him in danger of bleeding to death.

Roofer Pete Lovett, 48, was left dangling by his scrotum after catching it on one of these steel jet ski hooks Mr Lovett, from Wolvey in Warwickshire, was enjoying a day out on this boat when the accident happened

Mr Lovett, of Wolvey in Warwickshire, said he was left hanging by his sexual organs for several seconds before he pulled himself back up and felt between his legs.

'I put my arms between my legs and realised to my horror there was nothing there,' he said.

The accident happened as Mr Lovett, his wife Lorna, 49, and their 21-year-old son Alex spent the day on their 32ft boat Tanzanite, sailing, swimming and riding their jetski, before Mr Lovett decided to go for a swim.

He said: 'The jet ski was tied to the back of the boat and I tried to scooch my bum over the snap davits - steel brackets which the jet ski was tied to.



'Somehow I misjudged how high it was and the hook pranged my wetsuit, hooked me up and pulled me backwards.



'The metal went right through my scrotum and for five to six seconds I was hanging from it, floating in the sea as it ripped through my scrotum.



Fitness instructor Lorna Lovett, 49, called emergency services while her husband held a gauze to his wound

Mr Lovett said the surgeon who put him back together winced when he told him what had happened

'It was terrible. When I came up, I really did put my arms between my legs and to my horror found there was nothing there.

'I scrambled back on board and Alex, who had been sitting right next to me, knew something horrible had happened.



'He said, 'Dad, are you ok?', and I said: "No, it's serious".



'I work on building sites and am used to bangs and crashes, but this was different. '

Mr Lovett's testicles were dangling by just the vas deferens tubes.

He said: 'If it wasn't for the tubes holding my testicles, they would have gone into the sea and I would never have seen them again.



He asked his son to take the jet ski to shore and talked his fitness instructor wife through calling for help as he pressed gauze into the wound.



The roofer spent a week recuperating after his accident and the wound split open twice but he is now better

A crew from Hamble Lifeboat, an independent lifeboat station, was on scene within nine minutes and Solent Coastguard Helicopter was then scrambled to airlift the bleeding Mr Lovett, whose testicles were dangling five inches down his leg, to Southampton General Hospital.



Two specialist plastic surgeons were drafted in from their holidays and stitched Mr Lovett, who had never been in hospital before, back together in a three-hour operation.



He said: 'I knew I was in trouble and hadn't got time to think about the pain. Luckily nothing was ripped out and fully removed.



'Although there was quite a lot of skin missing, they put my balls back where they should go with the skin I had left.





'I'm lucky - if the hook had punctured two inches either side of where it did, it would have hit an artery and I'd have been a goner.' - Pete Lovett, 48



'The next morning a surgeon came and sat on my bed and said "I've heard some stories - how did you do it?". They couldn't figure out what I'd done.



'He put his hands between his legs and said "Bloody hell, that sounds painful".'

Mr Lovett recuperated for a week before returning to work but suffered a couple of painful setbacks when the scar split open twice.

Now fully recovered, although he doesn't want any more children, Mr Lovett insists he's 'lucky'.



He added: 'If the snap davit had punctured two inches either side of where it did, it would have hit an artery in my leg and I would have been a goner.



'I owe a huge thank you to the emergency services and feel massive gratitude that they were there for us in our moment of need.



'They got me from that terrible position to being put back together within hours. '



Mr Lovett, who left hospital with 32 stitches along a six-inch scar the next day, is now back at work and slowly recovering.

