“Days of Our Lives” star Greg Vaughan was hospitalized this week while on a father-son trip in Colorado.
The 50-year-old Daytime Emmy Award winner — who has appeared in nearly 1,000 episodes of the NBC soap since 2012 — revealed on Instagram that he’d suffered severe altitude sickness on the “Vaughan adventure.”
“Life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get,” he captioned two pictures from urgent care, referencing the notable quote from “Forrest Gump.”
“I’ve said more than a few times, I truly feel like I work and live in a soap opera!” he added. “This trip was nothing short of another Vaughan adventure.”
The “General Hospital” alum said he began to experience symptoms — shortness of breath, wheezing, congestion and a headache — a day into the family’s trip to Breckenridge, but waited until two days before heading to the hospital.
After attempting to treat himself with Pedialyte and NyQuil, Vaughan spent the night “tossing, turning, … coughing, dry heaving” and with a relentless headache. He spent the next day trying to rest up, but to no avail.
“I was mentally spinning trying not to think of having another horrible night or losing another day [with] my boys … but I did,” said Vaughan, who shares three sons with his ex-wife, Dutch model and actress Touriya Haoud. He is currently engaged to “Law & Order” alum Angie Harmon.
“I finally surrendered and went to urgent care and to my shock I learned that … my blood oxygen was at 54% and my lungs were full of fluids,” he shared. “Most people have an oxygen level of 95-100%.”
After four hours in the hospital, Vaughan said his oxygen level returned to 94%, thanks to “a couple of bags of IV and [an] oxygen tank strapped to [his] face” — though he was ordered to “immediately get off the mountain.”
“However I couldn’t, we still had another day to go and wanting the boys to enjoy their last day on the hill tops,” he said, admitting he instead “opted to go home with an oxygen tank,” which provided “a good laugh for everyone.”
He encouraged his followers to take his experience into account when visiting high altitudes.
The town of Breckenridge sits at 9,600 feet above sea level, while the summit of Breckenridge Ski Resort reaches nearly 13,000 feet
