A star from the hospitality on the high seas reality show Below Deck has shared how his vaping habit resulted in him suffering a heart attack.
33-year-old Fraser Olender has revealed to fans on Instagram that he was hit with a heart attack as a result of his use of e-cigarettes, and also shared the vital symptoms that told him something was seriously wrong.
‘Chief Stew’ Olender shared his health scare on Instagram this weekend, penning: “A few weeks ago I was rushed to hospital due to severe chest pains and difficulties breathing.”
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The star of at least four seasons of Bravo’s Below Deck added: “Following this, I spent a week in London hospitals seeing specialists to identify the cause and possible damage of the incident.
“To keep it simple – I had vape poisoning, (an E-cigarette or Vaping-Associated Lung Injury (EVALI)) and I have never experienced fear or pain like it.”
The 33-year-old Below Deck star had suffered a heart attack, which came as a result of his vaping habit (Gonzalo Marroquin/Getty Images for Inspirato)
Olender joined the Bravo smash hit series in 2021, first learning the managerial ropes as a second steward before climbing the rungs to chief steward for the following three series.
He said the sudden heart attack had caused him to experience ‘fear or pain’ unlike anything else he has known
In addition to sharing his early symptoms of chest pain and breathing difficulties, he told his followers what medical experts had said to him in the aftermath of his heart attack.
“Whatever was in my vape caused me to have a coronary artery vasospasm,” he explained. “Medically, that means the arteries supplying blood to my heart suddenly clamped down.”
This ‘vasospasm’ caused him to have a heart attack, as it had “reduced blood flow enough to cause an ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI), better known as a heart attack – not because of a blockage, but because my heart wasn’t getting enough oxygen during the spasm.”
