DAYS’ Greg Vaughan Opens Up About His Health Scare

What started out as a fun family ski vacation turned into a scary medical emergency for DAYS OF OUR LIVES star Greg Vaughan (Eric)! In a series of Instagram posts, the actor detailed how his trip to Colorado for his sons’ spring break landed him in urgent care! “I’ve said more than a few times, I truly feel like I work and live in a soap opera!” he quipped. “This trip was nothing short of another great Vaughan adventure!”

All seemed to be going well during the first few days that Vaughan and his three sons — Jathan, Cavan, and Landan — were at the Cooper Mountain ski resort in the Rocky Mountains. The actor (who once also played GENERAL HOSPITAL’s Lucky) shared snaps of the foursome and some friends skiing, snowboarding, and sledding. Unfortunately, things soon took a turn for Vaughan. His third post from spring break week in Colorado was a selfie of Vaughan hooked up to oxygen, as he detailed how ill he had become.

“I was feeling somewhat tired after one day, experiencing shortness of breath climbing a few flights of stairs, wheezy, some congestion after some cold snowy conditions, and a headache developing,” he explained. “I had hydrated all day, so into the night I drank a bottle of Pedialyte and NyQuil’d myself out for the night to be ready to tackle [Breckenridge] with the boys the next morning.”

Unfortunately, Vaughan had a very restless night and wasn’t feeling any better by morning. “My head felt like it was in a walnut cracker!” he confessed, adding that he was very disappointed to tell his sons and the friends they were traveling with that he planned to stay home to rest. “[I] only got worse as the day went on! I was mentally spinning trying not to think of having another horrible night or losing another day with my boys… but I did.”

After losing a second full day because he wasn’t feeling well, Vaughan “finally surrendered” and went to the local urgent care. “To my shock, I learned that I was experiencing severe altitude sickness,” he revealed. “My blood oxygen was at 54 % and my lungs were full of fluids! Blood oxygen, also known as oxygen saturation, represents the percentage of hemoglobin in your red blood cells that is carrying oxygen. Most people have an oxygen level of 95-100 %.”

Several hours later, he was thankfully doing better after receiving several bags of IVs and oxygen therapy. Vaughan’s follow-up post showed his smartwatch indicating a normal blood oxygen range. However, the medical staff urged him to leave the mountain immediately for lower ground. “I couldn’t,” he stated. “We still had another day to go and wanted the boys to enjoy their last day on the hilltops.”

Instead, the DAYS star opted to go home with an oxygen mask. “My boys looked after their old man and fortunately, they had friends on this trip!” concluded. “[The] Colorado Rockies are no joke!”