Richard Hammond’s fears health is still being affected by Top Gear crash 17 years on
Richard Hammond worries that his health could be deteriorating because of his horror 2006 Top Gear crash.
It was 17 years ago when Richard climbed into a jet-powered dragster and crashed while driving almost 320mph at the RAF Elvington airbase in York.
The presenter was in a coma for two weeks as a result, but made a miraculous recovery and managed to return to Top Gear in 2007.
Advert
Almost two decades later, though, Richard worries how the accident may be affecting his brain.
The Grand Tour star told the Diary Of A CEO podcast that the damage from the crash 'could mean there's an increased risk' of symptoms of memory loss.
Though he says his working memory is still quite strong, Richard says his long term memory is 'not brilliant'.
He told Steven Bartlett: "I have to consciously write memories down and work hard to recall them sometimes.
"It might be because I'm 53, it might be because I'm working a lot and I'm tired, it might be the onset of something else."
He continued that he is 'quite forgetful' in general, 'so I do drop the ball - I forget stuff, I forget keys'.
Richard presumes that a large part of that is just down to him as a person.
"That's just me, that's not a function of something going wrong. It's how I am."
That being said, he did suggest that he 'probably needs an MRI scan'.
Richard has previously spoken about how close he came to death after the car crash, revealing that he suspects his wife is the reason he got out of his coma.
"In hospital, intensive care, things were apparently not looking very good, but I didn't know. There was a lot of morphine floating around my system", he told YouTube channel What Next.
"I finally woke and I shared with my wife Mindy a dream I'd been having. A really, really vivid one - probably, partly, on a count of the morphine.
"And in my mind I'd been walking these hills here in the Lake District, overlooking Buttermere. 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? That feeling grew and grew."
When Richard walked toward one particular tree, the feeling of danger got more intense. Eventually, though, he turned back and suddenly he was awake.
After he told his wife Mindy about his dream, she told him what had been happening at the same time in the hospital room.
"She had been called into intensive care and told 'Mrs Hammond, I'm really sorry. Things aren't looking good... we're going to lose him'."
When told there was nothing she could do to help, Mindy asked if she could try shouting at him.
"And she did. And apparently she roared and screamed and swore at me 'don't you dare die'. And that's when I turned back from this tree in my dream. And that's when I woke."
Topics: Richard Hammond, Top Gear, Health, Celebrity
Ali Condon