Love Island legend reveals he 'died' after vape addiction caused respiratory failure
Former Love Island star Paul Danan has revealed that he suffered respiratory failure and had to be given CPR before being rushed to hospital last month.
The ex-Hollyoaks actor, who played Sol Patrick in the soap between 1997 and 2001, collapsed at his parents’ home in an episode he believes is connected to his addiction to vaping. Paul subsequently spent a week in intensive care at Whipps Cross Hospital in East London, where he also contracted pneumonia.
Speaking to The Sun on Sunday, Paul said: “I was dead — it’s a miracle I’m here.”
He explained what led to him being admitted to hospital: “I’m upstairs puffing away on my vape then suddenly I lost my breath and collapsed. My family called for an ambulance and started giving me CPR, then police arrived and took over before paramedics took me to hospital.”
“I was on a machine in ICU and ended up with pneumonia. My family were warned that I might not make it through the night. I’m so lucky.”
Paul was told that his addiction to vaping, following years of being a smoker, had caused the problem.
“The doctor was so, so harsh with me,” he said. “She told me, ‘Paul, you don’t know how serious this was and you are going to be in here for a while now, on this oxygen’. She said if I ever smoke in any form again I risk being linked to an oxygen tank later on in life. She said that’s it now.”
“After years of smoking cigarettes and all sorts, it’s the vaping which has done me in. That pushed me over the edge.”
Paul, who is dad to son Deniro, aged eight, has previously spoken out about his addictions, not just to smoking and vaping but also to drugs. On the podcast The Dozen with Liam Tuffs, Paul said that he was introduced to cocaine on his first day on the set of Hollyoaks when he was 19.
“The day I started there, someone and I am not going to say who, handed me an eighth of cocaine and I didn’t really know much about coke and he was like, ‘welcome.’ It was the first day, the first read through, I hadn’t even filmed anything.”
He also spoke about his addictions to Jeremy Kyle on his talk show in 2019. “I started to have a bit of time off I’d do it and it’s an invisible line and when you cross it it’s hard to go back. I’ve got an addictive personality and if I like something I want more of it.”
Since leaving Hollyoaks, Paul has appeared on reality TV series including the first celebrity series of Love Island in 2005, alongside Calum Best, Jayne Middlemiss and Rebecca Loos. He also competed in Celebrity Big Brother and Celebrity Coach Trip.
