Jamie Dornan Hospitalized With 'Heart Attack Symptoms' After Scary Run-in With Toxic Caterpillars
Jan. 22 2024, Published 1:30 p.m. ET
Jamie Dornan was hospitalized after experiencing "heart attack symptoms" brought on by toxic caterpillars, RadarOnline.com has learned. The Fifty Shades of Grey actor's terrifying ordeal occurred during a recent trip to Portugal.
Dornan's health issue was revealed by his friend Gordon Smart, who was also hospitalized during the golf trip for having the same symptoms.
Opening up about the scary ordeal on BBC’s The Good, the Bad and the Unexpected podcast, Smart said he and Dornan initially thought they were just hung over from the night before.
Just one day into their vacation, Smart said he started feeling a “tingling in his left hand and tickling in his left arm” that made him believe it was “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 explained.
Smart was taken to the hospital and later discharged after being observed by doctors and nurses.
When he returned to the hotel, he saw Dornan, 41, hooked up to medical equipment.
“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 recalled.
Dornan's health scare didn't stop the EMTs from reportedly asking for selfies.
“Anyway, as he left the hospital, the paramedics asked them for a selfie, which is really what you want when you’re being wheeled out of a hospital room," his pal revealed.
Doctors eventually told Smart and Dornan that their symptoms were likely caused by toxic caterpillars. Research shows that the tiny hairs on pine processionary moth caterpillars have an irritating protein that causes painful skin, eye, and throat irritations, according to Forest Research.
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“And 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.
“It turns out we’d brushed up against hairy processionary caterpillars and have been very lucky to come out of that one alive.”
Ending his story, Smart added, “So there’s my story; the good news is it wasn’t a caffeine overdose, it wasn’t a hangover — it was a poisonous, toxic caterpillar."
RadarOnline.com has reached out to Dornan's team for comment.