“Days of Our Lives” star Greg Vaughan hospitalized for 'severe altitude sickness' on family vacation

“In all seriousness, no matter your age, and all the times I’ve [ski emoji] & [snowboard emoji] in my lifetime, Colorado Rockies is no joke!”

Days of Our Lives star Greg Vaughan is on the mend after falling ill while on a father and son spring break trip to Colorado.  

The actor, who stars as Eric Brady on the beloved sudser, revealed in two lengthy Instagram posts published on Thursday that he’d been hospitalized for “severe altitude sickness” while on vacation. Alongside his statement, Vaughan also shared snapshots of himself sitting in a hospital bed, using an oxygen tank, and of his Apple Watch showing his blood oxygen levels. 

Vaughan explained on Thursday that he began feeling “somewhat tired” after his first day of vacation and before “experiencing shortness of breath climbing a few flights of stairs, wheezy, some congestion after some cold snowy conditions, and a headache developing.”

“I had hydrated all day, so into the night I drank a bottle of Pedialyte and NyQuil’d myself out to be ready to tackle BRECK w/the boys the next morning!” He wrote. “Unfortunately, it was a night of tossing, turning, no sleep, coughing, dry heaving & my head felt like it was in a walnut cracker! Disappointedly, morning arrived & I had to tell my boys, plus our friends who just arrived, I was staying home to rest & be my best for our final days to come!”

Vaughan noted, however, that his symptoms “only got worse as the day went on” and he was forced to miss a second day out with his kids.

“Two full days gone, enough was enough, I finally surrendered & went to urgent care and to my shock I learned that I was experiencing severe altitude sickness! My Blood Oxygen was at 54% & my lungs were full of fluids,” he added, noting that people generally have a blood oxygen level of “95-100%.”

According to the Cleveland Clinic, altitude sickness occurs as a result of your body not having "time to adjust to lower oxygen availability higher up in the atmosphere." While it is "usually preventable and treatable," the clinic noted that if a case is severe "it can rapidly turn into a life-threatening concern."

After “a couple bags of IV & oxygen tank strapped to my face,” Vaughan said in a secondary Instagram post that he was notified he needed to “immediately get off the mountain,” but refused because he didn’t want to cut his family’s trip short.

Instead, he “opted to go home with an oxygen tank, a good laugh for everyone, and I know will follow, but my boys looked after their old man & fortunately they had friends on this trip.”

“In all seriousness, no matter your age, and all the times I’ve [ski emoji] & [snowboard emoji] in my lifetime, Colorado Rockies is no joke!” Vaughan concluded. “As they say, ‘take a breathe and smell the roses!’ That is truly something we need to remember & appreciate!"

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