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And in this week’s installment of Jamie Dornan has a severely allergic reaction to a member of the animal kingdom… Yes folks, he’s done it again. Jamie Dornan — actor, heartthrob, horse-kisser — was vacationing in Portugal with his friend Gordon Smart, a Scottish broadcaster, and everything started going wrong when they went golfing. At first they thought they were hungover, but after experiencing numbness and more heart attack symptoms, a visit to the hospital later revealed the true culprit: the pine processionary moth caterpillar. A 40mm critter took down two 40-something men. Gordon described the ordeal when sitting down with The Good, the Bad and the Unexpected podcast:
Jamie Dornan found himself in the hospital after he suffered heart attack symptoms caused by toxic caterpillars during a recent trip to Portugal, his friend has revealed.
The “Fifty Shades of Grey” actor’s health scare was revealed by his pal Gordon Smart, who was also rushed to the hospital after experiencing the same symptoms at a golfing resort last year.
Recalling their nightmare getaway on BBC’s “The Good, the Bad and the Unexpected” podcast, Smart revealed that they initially thought their health woes were the result of too many drinks the night before.
To their surprise, they were told that their symptoms were caused by a run in with processionary caterpillars, which are known to be toxic.
Pine processionary moth caterpillars have tiny hairs containing an irritating protein that causes painful skin, eye, and throat irritations, according to Forest Research.
Just one day into their vacation, Smart revealed that 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.”
“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 said.
After being under the watchful eye of doctors and nurses at the hospital Smart was discharged.
As he returned to the hotel, he saw the Irish actor 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.
“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.”
The following week, the doctor called Smart and said that the pair’s symptoms might have been caused by toxic caterpillars.
“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,” he shared.
“It turns out we’d brushed up against hairy processionary caterpillars and have been very lucky to come out of that one alive.”
“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,” he added.
“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.” This may just be the most perfect sentence ever uttered in the history of our species. Seriously, where do we go from here? There is nothing any of us can ever say that will match the magnitude, the divine eloquence of these 30 words and the order in which they’re expressed. Whew, what a time to be alive.
As for Jamie, poor bubbe. I’ll give him credit, this dangerous encounter was through no fault of his own (unlike the horse incident). And how adorable is he: paramedics working fastidiously to counteract the severe allergic reaction, and Jamie turns to his friend and says, “Dear me, Gordon.” I think at this point we’ve firmly established that Jamie Dornan is an endearing goofball trapped in the body of a leading man. How much fun would he have been as a Ken?! But Jamie, please just, you know, STAY ALIVE!
First the orcas, now the caterpillars … nature is really angry with wealthy people.
(I love Jamie Dornan, though, so caterpillars, back off.)
Dude drank out of a creek, possibly with those goats having gone through. Nature is going to get this guy, one way or another. Zero self-preservation instincts.
I know this species of caterpillars, and they’re very freaky to witness after they hatch and fall to the ground – I see them on the dirt roads walking (head to bottom) in lines several meters long. They also eventually kill the host tree where they nest (and return to, year after year) so yeah, no bueno for the environment either! The locals around the area kill them on sight.
Eww, that is nightmarish.
I’m glad that he is okay — he is a literal treasure!
Once suffered a similar thing – with crazy pain and symptoms I’d never felt – turns out it was from a spider bite I didn’t even know I’d gotten and the toxin took hours to kick in and at least a day to go away. It was an off time of the year for insects and the spider I was bit by wasn’t even traditionally found where it happened. I was glad the Dr. happened to recognize the signs and identify what it was. Very scary!
Wow, that sounds terrifying!
You’ve reminded me that what I was early teens we were on holiday somewhere in France and my hand then arm started swelling and getting really sore, mum took me to a doctor who said it was probably some kind of spider. I already hated them so that experience did not help!
There are several different kinds of these poisonous processional moth caterpillars all over Europe now, thanks to the world getting a lot hotter. They seem to appear in cycles.
And they’re even in cities, mostly killing off their host trees, which would be European oaks in the northern parts of continental Europe.
Most people don’t know about these critters, and those that do often don’t look up to check for them. And who would think of wearing long sleeves in summer?
I hope Jamie has no lasting aftereffects.