Jeff Probst's Most Frightening Survivor Moment Of All Time
As a show that pushes its contestants to their limits as they compete in harsh conditions, it comes as no surprise that the CBS hit series "Survivor" has had its fair share of medical emergencies. In Season 19, Episode 6 Russel Swan was pulled from the game after suddenly collapsing from lack of food and water. This was a moment so serious that it made Jeff Probst (the host and executive producer of the show) question whether or not he wanted to continue working on "Survivor" or needed to take a break, via The New York Times. However, as temperatures rise and climate change continues to impact the show, what happened to Swan wasn't even the scariest moment of the series.
The only thing that topped Swan's medical evacuation was when three contestants collapsed from heat exhaustion in "Survivor: Kaoh Rong" Season 32, Episode 4 which took place on the scorching beaches of Cambodia. Although two of the contestants ended up being okay, Caleb Reynolds, a competitor known as the "Beast Mode Cowboy," suffered from a dangerous heat stroke that caused him to become unresponsive. According to Probst in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, this situation was the most frightening thing to have ever happened on "Survivor."
Why Reynolds' situation was so terrifying
The reason Caleb Reynolds' medical emergency was so frightening is because heat stroke – a condition where your body is no longer able to cool itself and starts overheating — is deadly if not treated quickly. According to Probst, as soon as Reynolds collapsed, they knew that his condition was much worse than that of the other two contestants because "there was no color in Caleb's face and very little response from him for quite a while," via Entertainment Weekly.
Luckily, as soon as Reynolds lost consciousness, the "Survivor" medical team and crew jumped into action to help. After 22 minutes of treatment on-site, Reynolds was then loaded into a chopper where he was evacuated to a hospital for further care. However, it still took multiple days of hospitalization and saline drips until Reynolds was remotely back to normal and he was unable to rejoin the competition. Despite this terrifying emergency, Reynolds wasn't ready to give up his dreams of being the "Survivor" quite yet and later went on to compete again two seasons later. Although he still didn't win on his second try, he also didn't experience any sort of medical emergency in Fiji — the location where most seasons of "Survivor" are filmed nowadays – which could be considered a win of a different kind.