Jamie Dornan and pal Gordon Smart hospitalized due to ‘heart attack’ symptoms from 'toxic caterpillar'

PORTUGAL, EUROPE: Jamie Dornan and his friend Gordon Smart had a terrifying experience in Portugal when they both developed ‘heart attack’ symptoms after coming in contact with toxic caterpillars.

The pair thought they were just hungover, but they were actually in a life-threatening situation, reports PageSix.

The ‘heart attack’ scare that landed Jamie Dornan and Gordon Smart in the hospital

Smart, who is a radio host, shared the story of their ordeal on BBC’s 'The Good, the Bad and the Unexpected' podcast. He said that they were on a golfing trip in the south of Portugal last year when they started feeling unwell a day later.

They thought it was due to too many drinks they had the night before. He said that he felt a “tingling in his left hand and tickling in his left arm” that made him think he was having a heart attack.

"You’re pretty sure that you’re convincing yourself that you are having one,” he said.

He was taken to the hospital, where he was hooked up to machines and monitored. But when he returned to the hotel, he saw Dornan, the star of 'Fifty Shades of Grey', in a similar condition.

Dornan told him that his left arm, left leg, and right leg went numb, and he ended up in an ambulance.

“He 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.

The shocking cause of Jamie Dornan and Gordan Smart's  symptoms: Toxic caterpillars

Smart said that as they 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.”

He said that a week later, the doctor called him and told him the shocking cause of their symptoms.

“It turns out we’d brushed up against hairy processionary caterpillars and have been very lucky to come out of that one alive," he said.

He said that these caterpillars have been "killing people’s dogs and giving men in their 40s heart attacks" on the golf courses in Portugal.

“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.