Richard Hammond once joked that he was 'proud' of the fact that the coma he had experienced after his shocking 2006 crash was at the worst possible level.

It's been 17 years since Hammond wound up in a two-week coma after being involved in a nightmare crash while filming Top Gear.

And yet, the shock of it all makes it seem like it was just yesterday.

The presenter had been driving a jet-powered dragster at an RAF Elvington airbase for an episode of the hit BBC show when, at almost 515kmph, he crashed.

Ink Drop / Alamy Stock Photo

As a result, Hammond suffered serious brain damage and was in a coma in hospital for two weeks.

It wasn't until 2007 when Hammond made miraculous enough of a recovery to returned to his presenting duties at Top Gear.

But shortly after his stint in hospital, he was able to speak quite openly about the horrific experience in interviews.

In one chat with Jonathan Ross, filmed just three months after the crash, Hammond shared what he could remember from his hospital visit.

"When you were in the coma, is anything going on that you can remember?" Ross asked Hammond when he appeared on his chat show. "Is it like a dream or are you aware of anything going on outside of yourself?"

Hammond explained that it essentially depends on the 'degree' of coma a patient is in, but his was the worst it could be.

BBC

"There's different degrees of coma. Mine was an especially bad one, the worst. I was very proud of that."

The presenter explained that comas are measured on something called the Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS).

The scale ranges from three to 15, with three being the lowest possible score, linked to unresponsiveness and a dangerously high mortality rate, and 15 being the highest with promising response rates.

"I was a solid three for quite a long time," Hammond revealed.

Being at 'a solid three' and making it out alive is something to be quite proud of, to be fair.

That being said, Hammond has spoken more recently about the worrying health problems he could still suffer years after his crash.

In an interview with the Diary of a CEO podcast earlier this year, he revealed that the horrific crash 'could mean there's an increased risk' of symptoms of memory loss in his future.

Diary of a CEO

"I have to consciously write memories down and work hard to recall them sometimes," Hammond confessed.

"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."

While he did suspect that some of it was just down to who he is as a person, Hammond did admit that he 'probably needs and MRI scan'.