Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Wales Online
Wales Online
Lifestyle
Cathy Owen

Richard Hammond shares emotional video in which he says wife's screams pulled him out of coma

When Richard Hammond lost control of a a £2million supercar and ended up in a coma, his family were warned to prepare for the worst. The Grand Tour presenter has been talking about being seconds from death in an emotional video that has been shared widely.

In it, he speaks about how his wife Mindy screaming in his ear (on doctor's orders) saved his life. Richard was placed on life support in 2017 following the horrendous crash while filming in Switzerland. He was left 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. The 52-year-old has been speaking about his experience in a Tik Tok video and opened up about how he found strength within his mind to regain consciousness - after being just seconds away from dying.

Read more : Celebrity chef James Martin taken to hospital for MRI scan

He said: "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."

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 walking in one of his favourite spots near a tree in the Lake District.

The aftermath of the crash (PA)
Richard leaving hospital in Leeds (PA)

At the same time his wife had been called into intensive care to be told that "things were not looking good".

When Mindy asked if there was anything they could do, they replied: "no not really", so she asked them if she could shout at the Top Gear presenter, and she did.

Richard says: "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.

"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."

Richard pictured by the tree he saw in his coma (@drivetrb/TikTok)

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.

"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."

Read next:

  • Neco Williams plays for Wales just 24 hours after grandad's death
  • Owner's heartbreak as rescue dog 'scared to death by fireworks'
  • Former Wales captain Jones says Wayne Pivac is 'out of his depth' in damning TV verdict
  • I'm a Celeb's Ant & Dec return to speaking Welsh after Wales' World Cup opener
  • Carl Woods announces split from Katie Price
  • Sign up to read this article
    Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
    Already a member? Sign in here
    Related Stories
    Top stories on inkl right now
    One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
    Already a member? Sign in here
    Our Picks
    Fourteen days free
    Download the app
    One app. One membership.
    100+ trusted global sources.