Richard Hammond recalled a 'really vivid' coma dream he had which took him to a 'happy place' after his terrible crash on Top Gear.
It's been years since Hammond was in the life-threatening crash involving a jet powered car which put him in a coma, and since then he's shared the vivid experience he had while unconscious and how his wife Mindy helped bring him back.
"In my mind I'd been walking these hills here in the Lake District,” he said.
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“I was having a lovely time, strolling along, and gradually I got a growing sense of, you know when you know you're in trouble? When you’re a teenager staying out just that bit too late – you’re not definitely in massive trouble yet, but you’re in a bit of trouble.
“And that feeling grew and grew, and I walked up this slope where I am now towards this tree, this exact tree.
"And as I got closer and closer that sense of, ‘Ooo, I really am in trouble, I'm going to be shouted at, I'm going to be in a lot of trouble' grew and grew until eventually, in my dream.
“I turned back, I didn't walk round this tree and carry on – and I woke.”
He woke up and told his wife Mindy about what he’d dreamt about.
It turned out that he really was in trouble, as she’d been shouting at him telling him not to die.
"Mindy told me her side of the story, because at the same time she had been called into the intensive care unit and told that things were not looking good,” Hammond continued.
“I was on full life support and breathing support, the lot, and they said, 'It's not looking good, we think we're going to lose him'."
When his wife asked if there was anything she could do to save him, she asked to shout at him.
"And she did," Hammond said. "And apparently she roared and screamed and swore at me, 'don't you dare die', and that's when I turned from this tree in my dream and that's when I woke."
The former Top Gear presenter told the BBC that his wife's shouting had coincided with the turning point of his dream where he didn't go past the tree.
"My brain chose to conjure up an image of my absolute favourite place in the world – my favourite activity, which is just going for a nice, simple walk,” he said, adding: “That’s all my brain wanted to create for me.”
Hammond said he chose to tell his story about the dream because ‘it’s not often you get to be really personal and share quite an intimate story’.
“I hoped it would connect with people […] Because it’s about acquired brain injury, that affects a lot of people,” he explained.
Topics: Richard Hammond, Top Gear, Celebrity
Jess Hardiman