Jamie Dornan experienced heart attack-like symptoms caused by toxic caterpillars
Jan 23, 2024
Los Angeles [US], January 23 : 'Fifty Shades of Grey' star Jamie Dornan was hospitalized after experiencing heart attack-like symptoms caused by toxic caterpillars.
As per The New York Post, the particular incident happened when Dornan was vacationing in Portugal last year.
Dornan was on a boys' trip with "Good Morning Britain" presenter Gordon Smart and their other friends last year when they both fell mysteriously ill.
Recalling the incident on BBC's "The Good, the Bad and the Unexpected" podcast, Smart revealed that they first thought they'd had too many drinks the night before -- but the culprit turned out to be pine processionary caterpillars, which are toxic.
Smart said, "We had a great time the first day, played loads of golf, went out, lots of wine was drunk and then we got on to espresso martinis."
But the next day, they were all, "Absolutely dreadful."
Smart recalled how, just a day into their vacation, he felt a "tingling in his left hand and tickling in his left arm" that made him think it was "the sign of the start of a heart attack."
"Tingling in my left hand and then tickling in my left arm. I'm the son of a GP [doctor] and thought, 'This is normally the sign of the start of a heart attack. Now, I'm a fairly healthy guy, but once you start thinking you're having a heart attack, you're pretty sure that you're convincing yourself that you are having one."
He went to the hospital, he said, where his resting heart rate was found to be extremely high.
Smart was rushed to the hospital and eventually discharged. He returned to the hotel to find Dornan sick this time.
"Jamie said, 'Dear me. Gordon, about 20 minutes after you left, my left arm went numb, my left leg went numb, my right leg went numb, and I found myself in the back of an ambulance,' " Smart revealed.
He also shared that as Dornan left the hospital, "The paramedics asked for a selfie, which is really what you want when you're being wheeled out of a hospital room."
"It turns out that there are caterpillars on golf courses in the south of Portugal that have been killing people's dogs and giving men in their 40s heart attacks," Smart said.
