After his Top Gear crash in 2022, the former cricketer and presenter expressed his “eternal gratitude” to the team of healthcare professionals who treated him.
Andrew ‘Freddie’ Flintoff has returned to the hospital where he was treated after his devastating Top Gear crash to thank the team of “superheroes” who cared for him.
The former cricketer and presenter, 47, suffered severe facial injuries when he flipped a three-wheel car whilst filming an episode of Top Gear in December 2022. He later revealed that he thought he “was dead” and remembered being “frightened to death”.
Freddie was taken to St George’s Hospital in Tooting, southwest London, where he underwent surgery and has since returned to the hospital. It comes after Top Gear host admitted he ‘never got along’ with Jeremy Clarkson as he made a bold statement.
When Freddie returned to St George’s, he said, “I just want to say a huge thank you to the St George’s staff. I needed assistance from them, which was probably the lowest I’ve ever been, and their expertise, love, and compassion were unmatched. He continued, “I’ll be utterly marvellous – absolute superheroes.”
Jahrad Haq, a maxillofacial surgeon, was on call the moment the presenter arrived with his injuries, and Freddie and him met. As Haq stated, “I knew this one was serious because a lot of injuries are managed at a more junior level before escalating.” This was one of the most complicated trauma cases I’ve seen in over 20 years.
The surgeon explained that Freddie’s injuries included broken and lost teeth and that some of his upper jaw bone had been displaced and fractured in the Disney+ documentary Flintoff, which was released earlier this year.
According to Haq, Freddie “lost a very significant portion of his upper lip, some of the underlying muscle, and also his lower lip.”
Meanwhile, Freddie asserted that he didn’t believe he would be able to handle the situation, saying, “Part of me wishes I’d been killed. I wish I had passed away, a part of me says. I fought not to commit suicide. The two things shouldn’t be confused, I hope. But I was considering, “This would have been so much simpler.”
The sports star claimed that after finding himself being dragged along the track during the accident, his “biggest fear” was that he no longer had a face. He said, “I believed my face had sunk.” I was terrified to death.
Following the crash, BBC Studios released a statement referring to an independent investigation held in 2023. It said: “[The review] found that while BBC Studios had complied with the required BBC policies and industry best practice in making the show, there were important learnings which would need to be rigorously applied to future Top Gear UK productions.”
Source: Mirror
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