A 21-year-old heart-transplant survivor has died after a New Year's Day car crash.

Earl Ingemann suffered multiple injuries in the early-hours collision in St. George's and passed away on Saturday after being medevaced to the US.

His mother, Wanda Ingemann-Ebbin, revealed that he was already dying prior to the crash because his body was rejecting his donor heart. It ultimately proved too weak to cope with the trauma.

"If he'd had a regular strong heart it probably would be a different outcome, it wasn't really the traumatic injuries," she said last night.

Mr. Ingemann, from Sandys, was a passenger in a car that hit a tree and overturned near Stone Crusher Corner, Kindley Field Road, St. George's, at 3.35 a.m. He and a group of friends were travelling home from a New Year's Eve party.

Mr. Ingemann suffered injuries including head and chest injuries and a broken neck, and was rushed to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital. He was airlifted overseas to Johns Hopkins hospital in Baltimore later on New Year's Day but died at 11.55 a.m on Saturday.

He previously underwent heart transplant surgery at the same hospital in May 2007 because he was suffering from an enlarged heart caused by cardiomyopathy. His health struggles and livewire personality became familiar to television viewers in the US when he featured on the documentary series Hopkins last year.

Mrs. Ingemann-Ebbin, 39, from Sandys, travelled to Baltimore to be with her son after the accident. She explained last night how he'd already been battling for survival due to his two-year history of serious heart problems.

"He was on anti-rejection medication but the only option was another heart transplant and he said he didn't want to undergo another," she said. "I can only equate Earl's life to the Frank Sinatra song (My Way) because he did it his way. He loved his life. Earl was a very spontaneous, lovable clown. He brought smiles to everybody's faces, even the nurses at Hopkins. They were crying and I was feeling like I had to hold them up. He lived there for six months before he had his transplant.

"Earl was dying anyway. Hopkins had already told me he wouldn't make it past the end of November but he did. He went out in a way he would have wanted to go as opposed to lying around and suffering."

Mr. Ingemann, who has a younger brother and two younger sisters, remained conscious in the hours after the collision but later suffered a cardiac arrest that left him on a life-support machine.

"They told me that pretty much he was gone. His heart was too weak to sustain any type of trauma like that," explained his mother. "I told them to go ahead and take him off the machine, then it was very quick."

Three others suffered minor injuries in the single-vehicle car crash, including the 31-year-old Sandys man who was driving. He was arrested on suspicion of impaired driving, but later passed a breath-test.

Mrs. Ingemann-Ebbin said: "Maybe he was tired. Maybe he mis-negotiated the bend and if Earl had been a healthy guy he probably would have walked away."

She has no desire to see the driver prosecuted over the crash, explaining: "It was my car but Earl wasn't capable of driving long distances. He said his friend was driving. I feel sorry for him, I know he is feeling it."

Adding her voice to the tributes yesterday, Mr. Ingemann's cousin, Sophia Lambe, 27, who lives in Los Angeles, said: "It's really sad but I feel like God needed him more. All I can do is be happy he was part of the family. He was very outgoing, very friendly, he always had the biggest laugh ever.

" That's probably my best memory of him, laughing and joking and playing pranks on his older cousins."

Mr. Ingemann's death marks the first road fatality Bermuda has suffered in 2010.

Anyone with information about the collision should contact Detective Sergeant Jason Smith or Chief Inspector Tracy Adams at Southside Police Station on 278-5105.

They particularly wish to hear from anyone who saw a red Suzuki car, license number 33382, leaving St. George's town centre during the early hours of Friday and motorists travelling on Kindley Field Road at the time of the collision. Meanwhile, arrangements for Mr. Ingemann's funeral are being made through Alpha Memorial Chapel.