Jamie Dornan suffered heart attack symptoms after the caterpillar accident

Tourist star Jamie Dornan was “very lucky” to be alive after suffering heart attack symptoms following a collision with a poisonous caterpillar on holiday.

Dornan had been enjoying time with friends in Portugal, including former Good Morning Britain presenter Gordon Smart, where the group began feeling unwell just days into their trip.

Smart told the story on the BBC podcast “The Good, the Bad and the Unexpected,” explaining that he and Dornan felt “tingling” and “tingling” in their limbs after spending the first day of their trip on the golf course .

“We had a great time the first day, played a lot of golf, went out, drank a lot of wine and then we had espresso martinis,” Smart began.

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He continued: “Anyway, the next day we were playing golf, we were all absolutely terrible and I started feeling a tingling sensation in my left hand and then a tickling sensation in my left arm. I’m the son of a family doctor and I thought, ‘This.’ is usually the sign of the start of a heart attack.

Concerned that he was seriously unwell, the BBC Morning Live presenter went to hospital where medical staff discovered he had an extremely high resting heart rate, where a doctor questioned him about the amount of alcohol the group was drinking had.

Smart then revealed that after he was released from the hospital, he returned to find Dornan hooked up to medical equipment.

“Jamie said, ‘Dear 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,'” the presenter said called back.

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Fortunately, the two were able to recover from the illness, and a week later a doctor contacted the presenter to explain what had likely happened to them.

“It turns out we encountered hairy processionary caterpillars and were very lucky to make it out alive,” he explained.

Pine processionary moth caterpillars carry an irritating protein called thaumetopoein in their hairs, which can cause painful skin rashes and, in some cases, allergic reactions when they come into contact with people and animals.

Smart added: “And it turns out there are caterpillars on golf courses in the south of Portugal that are killing people’s dogs and giving men in their 40s heart attacks.”

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