The castaways on Season 44 of “Survivor” got off to a rocky start during last night’s big premiere — during which one contestant was pulled from the game and two others required medical attention.
Just seconds into the first challenge, Bruce Perreault banged his forehead on a wooden beam he was supposed to wriggle underneath. The crash split open his skin and blood was seen pouring out of the wound, as he momentarily appeared dazed by what happened. He initially kept soldiering on, however, and completed his task — despite more and more blood coming out of the cut.
Watch the accident below:
Host Jeff Probst kept checking in on Bruce, who said he was doing fine … until he wasn’t. As he collapsed to the ground, Probst called for medical assistance. After getting him some oxygen, he seemed okay and even went back to his tribe’s camp. But later that evening, he said his head was “killing” him and he appeared a bit out of it, before calling for the medical team again. At that point, the decision was made to remove him from the game, so he could go to the hospital for further testing and treatment.
On the new “Survivor” after show podcast, Probst confirmed Perreault will be invited to compete on the show again in a future season.
Bruce was only the first injury of the evening, however, as Matthew Grinstead-Mayle suffered a pretty scary fall while he, for some reason, decided to climb a tall rock formation in the water. As he went up the rocks, they started to give out below his feet and he went flying to the rough ground below. “I need a medic!” he exclaimed, before popping his dislocated shoulder back in and showing off his sliced up hands and feet.
He was later given a sling by medics and sat out the immunity challenge.
Watch his terrifying fall below:
During the immunity challenge, Matthew’s fellow tribe member Brandon Cottom also sought medical attention.
Both Matthew and Brandon exhausted themselves on Day 1 during a challenge in which they had to haul coconuts back and forth on the beach for four hours. The next day, during the immunity challenge, Brandon also had to do a lot of the heavy lifting for his tribe as they were tasked with pulling a heavy box from the water and through a series of obstacles as part of the competition.
As Probst exclaimed, “Brandon’s on fumes … it is a very hot day in Fiji,” Cottom fell victim to that heat and overexertion. He collapsed to his feet, before telling Jeff, “I don’t know if I can get up.”
With that, the challenge was halted and medical came out to give him assistance as well. They believed he was “just very dehydrated,” which was treated with some fluids and time in the shade. He sat out the rest of the challenge … which his tribe ended up losing.
While both Matthew and Brandon wound up on the injured list, neither of them were sent packing by their tribe during tribal council, however. Brandon was able to save himself with an immunity idol he found earlier in the day, canceling out the votes against him would have sent him home. His tribe-mate Maddy was eliminated instead.
“Survivor” airs Wednesdays on CBS.
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