A former Army Ranger was nearly sliced in half when he was struck by a propeller of a boat that ran him over in a disturbing hit-and-run as he snorkeled off the coast of the Bahamas during a family vacation.
Brent Slough, from Prosper, Texas, is in critical condition at an ICU in Miami, Florida, after suffering multiple fractures and deep gashes in the horrifying incident on June 30.
Slough was snorkeling approximately 20 feet off the shore of Exuma when a speedboat, captained by two men, barreled through the waters and into the father of two before taking off, CBS Texas reported.
The 42-year-old was with his wife, Whitney, and their two daughters, who witnessed the grisly hit-and-run, for a 10-day vacation on the island.
“I felt like a thump thump, and I was like, ‘did I just get hit by a boat?’” Slough told the outlet. “My left leg wasn’t functioning, and I felt like something was wrong with my lower body.”
Slough was nearly split in two by the powerful blades that struck just below his buttocks.
“His bottom was almost completely detached from his legs,” a horrified Whitney Slough said.
The wounded father managed to pull himself above water and saw the boat that allegedly struck him speeding away from the frightening scene.
“So I surfaced and I looked to my right and I see two guys in a boat and one of them looks back and they just keep on going,” he said.
Slough’s older daughter rushed to her dad’s aid and pulled him to shore using a float, according to the outlet.
Slough was rushed to a hospital on Exuma before being transferred roughly 30 minutes away to a medical center in Nassau.
The care at both facilities was considered “insufficient,” and Slough was airlifted on an ambulance jet to Miami, Fla. where he went into surgery before being hospitalized in the ICU, according to a GoFundMe set up for his wife.
“The doctor told me, ‘Please get to a hospital in Miami, you need to get to the US for something this traumatic,’” Slough said.
Doctors are concerned that Slough’s injuries are still life-threatening, fearing the lacerations can become infected.
Whitney Slough left her daughters back in the Bahamas to travel with her husband to the US.
“It breaks my heart because we’re not on vacation together, and we are not with our girls at the same time,” she told CBS Texas. “I’m so grateful that he’s alive.”
Slough graduated from West Point before becoming an Army Ranger in his six-year military service, where he served one tour in Iraq.
The determined wife is returning to her children to assist authorities in finding the boaters she believes are aware of hitting her husband.
“Oh, they’re going to be found,” she said. “It’s against the law to be within 200 feet of the shore. Brent was about 20 feet out … I just wish they would turn themselves in, but if they don’t turn themselves in, then we have to find them.”
Whitney Slough credited God for saving her husband, despite his gruesome injuries.
“This was God getting us through this 100%,” she added.
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