Richard Hammond battling health condition that ‘never leaves you’ 18 years on from brutal Top Gear car crash
RICHARD Hammond has opened up about living with a health condition as a result of his horror 2006 car smash while filming Top Gear.
The 54 year old star was caught up in the potentially-deadly collision during a daredevil stunt filmed for the former BBC programme in York.
One of the tyres blew on the Vampire jet car which caused it to spin out of control and resulted in the terrifying crash which landed the star in a coma and caused him to suffer from a frontal lobe brain injury.
Since the incident, Richard has openly spoke about the impact the crash has had on him with it even affecting his family life.
The TV presenter’s daughter, Izzy, admitted she felt “scared” of getting into a car with him and the star is continuing to suffer with his health in the years that have followed.
Speaking to LadBible, Richard revealed he suffers from ‘lost key syndrome’ and has done for the past 18 years.
It has sparked worry for Richard that he could even be diagnosed with early onset dementia as a result of the trauma to his brain.
When referring to ‘lost key syndrome’, it is understood that Richard is referring to dysexecutive syndrome which is described as a dysregulation of executive functions which is associated with frontal lobe damage.
Admitting it has “never left” him, Richard admitted to LadBible: “I think anybody who’s suffered a brain injury will probably agree that it never leaves you in the sense that there’s always a little bit of you [confused] if you lose your car keys or you forget something.
“Mine was a frontal lobe injury, which would explain that. I’m left thinking, ‘Oh, no. Is that because of the brain injury? Or is it because I’m now 54? Is it just because I’ve lost my keys?’
“The doctors actually call it ‘lost key syndrome’ and it goes on and on.”
The injuries have left Richard admitted that he has to ‘try harder’ to remember more but has confessed that it had turned him into “who I am” today.
He added: “I have to write things down and work hard to remember them sometimes.
“It might be the age, it might be the onset of something else, I worry about that. I do, I do.
“I should probably have a look and find out, because I do.”
“I’m still that irritating bloke from Birmingham, but that’s another one of the experiences that had turned me into the version of who I am today.”
As a result of the bleed on his brain, Richard has no recollection to this day of the scary incident and left TV execs panicked once again when he require hospitalisation for another crash gone wrong in Switzerland five years ago.
Although he suffered no severe injuries, he reflected back on his time in hospital in 2006 which he compared to as having a “one-minute memory”.
Richard added: “Mindy my wife said I was the nicest I had ever been. Lovely apparently. I was perfectly happy reading the same newspaper every single day several times a day until Mindy took it away because she was sick of seeing me read it.
“If someone is in that confused state for whatever reason, if they are happy, they are happy.
“All you’ve got to do is cope to support them in that. It doesn’t matter if they can’t remember who you are. And I was.”
Richard hosted Top Gear on the BBC with Jeremy Clarkson and James May before the trio moved to Amazon to front The Grand Tour.