Below Deck Star’s Heart Attack at 33 Sparks a Warning About Vaping That Stopped Fans Cold

There is a particular kind of shock that settles in when someone young, active, and familiar suddenly appears in a hospital bed. It interrupts the quiet story many people tell themselves about time and safety.

Heart attacks belong to later years. To cautionary tales. To someone else’s life. At least, that is how it is usually framed. Vaping, meanwhile, has woven itself into daily life almost invisibly. A few pulls between emails. A quick inhale while waiting in line.

Something casual enough to feel harmless. For many, it became the alternative that seemed to carry fewer consequences. Cleaner. Safer. Easier to justify than cigarettes. It fit neatly into modern routines without demanding much thought.

That assumption is what made Fraser Olender’s story hit so hard. Fans know him as the sharp, composed chief steward from Below Deck. He is not the person people expect to see issuing health warnings or sharing hospital updates. He is 33 years old. He works long hours in a physically demanding job. By all outward appearances, he looks well.

So when Olender revealed that he had suffered a heart attack, people stopped scrolling. When he explained that doctors linked it to vaping, that pause deepened. It turned into confusion, fear, and a flicker of recognition.

For many readers, this was not a distant celebrity headline or a cautionary anecdote meant for someone else. It felt personal. Unsettling. Like a reminder that some habits hide their risks until the moment they no longer can.

A Below Deck star revealed over the weekend he'd been diagnosed with 'vape poisoning' after a shock heart attack aged just 33 years old.

Now, we all know that vaping has soared in popularity recently, and while it might have the appeal of a healthier alternative to smoking cigarettes, it doesn't come without its own risks.

It was revealed in November that for the first time in Great Britain, there are more over-16s using vapes or e-cigarettes than smoking cigs, as per data from the Office for National Statistics.

That equates to a whopping 5.4 million of us in the UK using vapes daily or occasionally.

And now, as we say, Fraser Olender, who joined Netflix reality TV show Below Deck in season nine, shared a series of snaps taken from the hospital over the weekend, along with a lengthy caption telling his fans about the unexpected vaping-related health scare.

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Olender penned on Instagram: "A few weeks ago I was rushed to hospital due to severe chest pains and difficulties breathing. 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."

He added: "Whatever was in my vape caused me to have a coronary artery vasospasm. Medically, that means the arteries supplying blood to my heart suddenly clamped down.

"That spasm 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.

"I’m grateful to still be recovering now, and I’m sharing this because I never realised something like this could happen. If this experience can help even one person rethink vaping, it’s worth telling."

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Olender vowed that he 'hasn't touched a vape since this happened' and insisted he never will again.

He said: "The pain I endured for 24 hours was inexplicable, 2 rounds of morphine didn’t touch the sides and eventually had to be given the strongest pain relief legal to administer in ER - and that only brought my pain from a 10 to a 7.

"I could have died for the sake of something so ridiculously stupid, so please do yourselves a favour and give it up too - cold turkey. We do not know enough about these horrific things but I can tell you one thing; that was NOT cute, not even for the plot."

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What are the symptoms of 'vape poisoning'? Olender explained how he was diagnosed with E-cigarette or Vaping-Associated Lung Injury (EVALI).

This is essentially the term for the lung disease that can develop due to vaping.

As per the American Lung Association, the common symptoms include shortness of breath, fever, cough, vomiting, diarrhea, headache, dizziness, rapid heart rate and chest pain.

Meanwhile, nicotine poisoning refers to the toxic effects of consuming nicotine and is the result of having too much nicotine in your body.

As reported by Cleveland Clinic, it used to be rare, however, today, it has become a growing concern because of new nicotine products on the market, particularly electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes), aka vapes.

So, what symptoms should you be looking out for? Well, Nicotine poisoning can occur in two stages: early phase and late phase.

Early phase symptoms after ingestion include:

Nausea and vomiting. Vomiting occurs in more than 50% of people with symptoms

Increased salivation

Abdominal pain

Pale skin colour

Sweating

Increased blood pressure

Increased heart rate

Rapid, heavy breathing (hyperpnea)

Loss of full control of body movements (ataxia), loss of balance, difficulty walking

Tremors

Headache, dizziness

Muscle twitching

Seizures

While late phase symptoms include:

Diarrhea

Low blood pressure (hypotension) and slow heart rate (bradycardia).

Abnormal heart rhythms

Shock

Coma

Muscle weakness/paralysis

Shallow breathing, difficulty breathing, respiratory failure

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Stories like this linger because they disrupt the mental shortcuts people rely on to feel safe. Youth is not armor. Familiar habits are not guarantees. And “better than smoking” does not mean harmless.

Olender’s warning is not delivered with judgment or fear-mongering. It comes from lived pain and the unsettling realization that something small almost ended everything.

If this story made you pause, you are not alone. Talk about it. Share it. And let the conversation travel farther than the habit ever did.