Dornan in A&E after brush with caterpillar
JAMIE DORNAN was put in hospital by coming into contact with a dangerous caterpillar in Portugal last year, his friend has revealed.
The Fifty Shades of Grey actor, 41, required emergency treatment after brushing against toxic hairs of processionary caterpillars while out on a golf course. Dornan’s friend, Gordon Smart, the Scottish broadcaster and journalist, also required hospital treatment for the same symptoms on the trip.
Speaking to the BBC’S The Good, the Bad and the Unexpected, Smart said: “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. We’d brushed up against hairy processionary caterpillars and had been very lucky to come out of that one alive.”
Recounting the tale to the host Mark Nelson, he explained: “We played golf… and I started to feel tingling in my left hand, and then tingling in my left arm… which is normally the sign of the start of a heart attack.”
Smart was sent to hospital for treatment after recording an abnormally high heart rate at a local medical centre, and while there he saw Dornan being rushed into the emergency room. It was only when a doctor phoned the following week that they discovered the true cause of the symptoms. Contact with the small barbed hairs on the caterpillars, which are common in Southern Europe, can cause reactions in people ranging from mild inflammation to severe anaphylactic shock.
Representatives for Dornan were approached for comment.