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Daily Mirror
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Hana Carter

Richard Hammond says wife's screams saved him from his near-death coma

Richard Hammond has spoken about being seconds from almost certain death - and how his wife screaming in his ear actually saved his life.

The Grand Tour presenter was on life support in 2017 after he lost control of a £2million supercar in Switzerland which left him in a coma with a frontal lobe brain injury.

Luckily for the daredevil, he miraculously survived the ordeal... but at one point doctors didn't think he was going to make it.

Richard, 52, has opened up about his bizarre brush with death and how he found strength within his mind to regain consciousness - after being just seconds away from dying.

Richard Hammond said that when he was in a coma he had a 'vivid dream' (@drivetrb/TikTok)
He said that in the dream he was walking towards a tree in the Lake District in his dream (@drivetrb/TikTok)

Speaking on a TikTok video, Richard was sat under a tree in the Lake District as he recalls what could have been his final moments.

"A long time ago, I was in a coma with a brain injury as a result of a particularity flamboyant crash," he began.

"In hospital, intensive care, things apparently not looking very good but I didn't know, there was a lot of morphine flowing around my system."

Richard said that it was his wife screaming at him that woke him up (@drivetrb/TikTok)
She told him that he 'wasn't allowed to die' (PA)

"I finally woke and I shared with my wife Mindy a dream I'd been having, a really, really vivid one. Probably partly on account of the morphine," he explained.

The presenter explained how he told his wife that while he was in the coma that he had just regained consciousness from, he had been having a dream that he was in the Lake District.

He explained how in this dream he started to get the feeling that he was in trouble, likening the sensation to when you're a teenager and you've stayed out past your bed time.

He said that he regularly visits the tree and finds it a comfort (Internet Unknown)

And in his dream, he found himself walking up a hill towards a tree, and the closer he got to the tree, the more the sense that he was in trouble grew.

In the video, Richard was in the exact spot from his dream, and was sat under the exact tree that was causing him so much worry while he was in a coma.

"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 to the tree, that sense of 'ooh I really am in trouble' grew and grew.

He was rushed to intensive care following the smash (AFP/Getty Images)

"Until eventually in my dream I turned back and didn't walk around this tree and carry on and I woke, and that's the dream I told Mindy about."

He recalled how his wife was stunned, and told her side of the story.

"At the same time I was having that dream, she'd been called into intensive care and told: 'Mrs Hammond, I'm really sorry, things aren't looking good'."

Richard said how his wife asked doctors if she could scream at him as she was in the coma (Ken McKay/ITV/REX/Shutterstock)

He explained how the doctors were monitoring his vitals and said that he was on full life support and breathing apparatus.

His wife was told by doctors that they thought Richard was going to die, and when Mindy asked if there was anything they could do, they replied: "no not really."

He was left with a brain injury after he lost control of his car (PA)

So Mindy asked them if she could shout at the Top Gear presenter, and she did.

"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."

"It's true. I didn't really come up this hill and walk round this tree, I was in a coma in Leeds. But my mind did, and my mind is who I am - I know that very well having damaged it with a frontal lobe brain injury and spent a long time recovering.

He lost control of his supercar in Switzerland in 2017 (@Russian_market/Twitter)

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"And I've taken huge solace from that ever since, because that was my last thought - certainly at the time. And my last thought took me somewhere I love and somewhere I'm happy."

He explained how he took comfort in knowing that could have been his last thought, and said he would have happily spent "all of eternity" in it.

The TV host said that he wasn't scared of the tree, if anything it brings him solace and he passes it reguarly on his rambles - knowing that one day when it's his time to go, he'll return.

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