WASN'T HE THE GUY THAT HAD THE QUAD BIKE ACCIDENT?

He was "that quad bike guy"...until Ozzy Osbourne had a similar accident recently. For those outside of the UK, a quad bike is also known as an all terrain vehicle -- an "ATV".

On Thursday, April 9th, 1998 Rik and his family were on their property in Devon for the Easter holidays. Sometime that day Rik decided to take a ride on his quad bike (a Christmas present from wife Barbara). His youngest daughter Bonnie and her cousin asked to ride along with Rik, and he agreed. However, after putting them on the bike and pulling out of the garage, Rik felt some drops of rain on his arm. He didn't want the children to get wet, so he took them off the bike. And off he went on his own. A while later Barbara looked out the window and saw Rik lying on the ground with the bike. At first she thought he was joking -- until she went outside and got a closer look.

Rik was airlifted to Plymouth Hospital because the traffic was too heavy to get through with an ambulance. He had suffered two hematomas and a fractured skull. "One hemorrhage was deep in the brain on the left side and the other was creating a reservoir of blood between the brain and the skull on the right." (see There Wasn't a Mark on My Rik... But His Life Was in the Balance for a great recounting of the accident by Barbara, as well as good medical explanations).

Doctors told Barbara the next 96 hours would be the most crucial, and Rik had to be kept heavily sedated during that time to prevent movement which could cause pressure on his brain. Barbara was also told that even if Rik survived, he could end up brain damaged.

On the fifth day, doctors felt it safe to bring Rik back to consciousness. When Rik speaks of the accident, he refers to this time as having been in a coma. I don't know if he technically was in one or not, but this is what he refers to it as.

During this touch and go period, the Comic Strip special Four Men in a Car was broadcast for the first time on tv. There was some tittering about whether it would be shown, as in the film Rik's character gets side swiped by a car, and some felt it would be in bad taste to broadcast it. However, Barbara gave her blessing to the broadcast, and it was shown in full. A special get well message for Rik was added by an announcer.

After Rik was brought back to consciousness, he was quite confused and had trouble remembering who anyone or anything was. He says he acted very bizarrely at this time and believed he was being held hostage by the staff at the hospital. After being transferred to a private hospital in London, Rik made a run for it one day and actually did escape. He got a taxi to his home, but was taken back to the hospital later that day after being sedated by his doctor.

While recuperating, Rik was told that the reservoir of blood had failed to clear from his brain and an operation would be necessary. The operation was major, and only gave a 50/50 chance of survival. However, they did a scan a few days later and the blood was gone. According to Rik, the threat of the operation "scared the blood out of my brain".

Although the threat of the operation had past, Rik's behavior was still erratic. He couldn't remember certain words correctly and kept mixing things up. His memory was still poor and his family would often find him doing odd things.

He was also supposed to take medication to prevent epileptic fits for a period of a year until doctors felt the threat of fits related to his condition had passed. However, after a few months Rik felt he was doing well, so he stopped taking the medication altogether. As a result he suffered one or two epileptic fits. During one, he bit through his tongue. He's now on the medication for life.

As he felt stronger, Rik eased his way back into his career by doing some voice overs. His first post-accident acting job was in the Jonathan Creek Christmas Special, The Black Canary.

For further information, you can read through the Accident Archive on this website. It's listed in reverse order and will take you from the first news reports of the accident through the next few months of reports.

Also, while Rik discusses his accident in many interviews, two which contain a good amount of information as well as Rik's impressions of the experience can be found at The Interview: Rik Mayall and Deadlier than the Mayall.