Vape Addiction Lands Actor in Hospital for Respiratory Failure: Paul Danan Speaks Out

The 'Hollyoaks' alum spent a week in the ICU after he collapsed and had to be given CPR.

By Allison Schonter

Paul Danan is opening up about his recent scary health struggles. Last month, the Love Island and Hollyoaks alum, 45, had to be brought back to life after his "obsessive" vape addiction caused him to suffer respiratory failure.

Recounting the terrifying ordeal to The Sun, the Good Girls Club star revealed that he was rushed to the hospital after he suddenly collapsed. The actor recalled being "upstairs puffing away on my vape then suddenly I lost my breath and collapsed." After his family called emergency services, Danan said they "started giving me CPR, then police arrived and took over before paramedics took me to hospital."

Danan, who said he "was dead – it's a miracle I'm here," was rushed to the hospital, where he was placed "on a machine in ICU and ended up with pneumonia." His condition was so critical that doctors warned his family "I might not make it through the night. I'm so lucky."

According to Danan – who appeared as Sol Patrick across several episodes of Hollyoaks before competing in the original season of Celebrity Love Island in 2005, per his IMDb profile – his health scare was the result of years of vaping, something his doctor warned him against.

"The doctor was so, so harsh with me. 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," he recalled. "After years of smoking cigarettes and all sorts, it's the vaping which has done me in. That pushed me over the edge."

The soap star has had a history of addiction, battling drugs and alcohol in the past, though he has been clean for the past three years. He told The Sun that he picked up vaping after quitting cigarettes in 2021, believing that "it was the safest way to smoke, as I didn't want to use cigarettes anymore," after he "saw a YouTube video where someone blew cigarette smoke into cotton wool then did the same with a vape. The cotton wool turned black from the smoke from the cigarette, but the wool remained the same colour after the vape vapour hit it... Off the back of that, in my head – because I have ADHD everything is very visual – I've always thought they'd be OK."

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Danan quickly became addicted to vaping, admitting that he "got obsessed with them. Everywhere I went I'd have my vape with me. I'd always have one in my hand, I would even go to sleep with it, like a comfort thing."

Following his own experience with vaping and the health woes it can cause, Danan, who said his experience was "the kick up the a-e I needed and it really has worked," said he is "worried about the kids today, all you see is kids with vapes... It's so upsetting. And the problem is because of the sugar and the taste and nicotine, it's going to be so hard for them to let go of that."

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