Lee Johnston has opened up for the first time about his recovery from a horrific accident at the North West 200 which left him fighting for his life.
The Fermanagh man was in intensive care in a coma for four days having suffered a broken femur, shoulder and ribs, as well as a collapsed lung and injuries to his foot and face.
It happened after he crashed during practice for the NW200 Supersport race on 11 May at thre Church Corner section of the racecourse.
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The Maguiresbridge native had a blood transfusion on a nearby golf course, then underwent a 10-hour emergency surgery after being airlifted to hospital in Belfast. He then spent three days on a ventilator.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Johnston details the physical and mental toll the accident has taken as well as releasing the onboard footage of the accident for the first time.
“I did a little clip of how I was once I got home and, honestly, things have not been great since then, not just physically but mentally, actually mostly mentally - my head wasn’t in a great place,” he says.
“I wouldn’t have been fit to give any logic of the situation because I was just crying, random things. Now more research has been done, it was down to the trauma of the accident, what my body has been through, what my brain has been through.
“I’ve been seeing a trauma psychologist because within two days of waking up in the hospital I knew something wasn’t right. I kept saying that someone else had gone to sleep in the hospital and this person woke up, which sounds crazy, but that is what it felt like in my head.
“I’m getting better though, with the support of everyone around me, but that’s the biggest thing because while the injuries are a massive drawback, I can see myself day-to-day getting better.
“The biggest thing I suffered with first of all was the feeling of letting people down - the team, the sponsors, myself - I don’t know why because crashing is a massive part of our job, but because I’d had such a good start to the year in BritishSSP, I think it made it worse.
“Once I got over that and thought I was OK, the trauma of it all wouldn’t leave me so I’d have these massive episodes of crying and not knowing why I was crying.
“Not easy to take when you base your whole life on being mentally tough.”
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