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Page 1 introduced Dr. Adrian Cohen and the medical team for the TV reality show, Survivor. What happens when a contestant needs to leave the island for medical reasons?

Booted Off the Island

In case the team needs to evacuate a patient to a higher level of care, Cohen says they make prior arrangements with hospitals, both local and distant. Transport to a hospital can take as little as an hour to as much as six hours. Cohen says they use any means available - car, boat, helicopter, or plane - and they make sure they have those resources arranged ahead of time.

Cohen says the decision to evacuate a contestant is made by the medical team in consultation with the show's producers. There's a million bucks at stake, so contestants are probably willing to take more risks than they should. Cohen insists that the decision to evacuate a contestant is made in the best interests of the contestant - not the show.

Contestants Michael Skupin, Paschal English, and Bruce Kanegai have all been evacuated to hospitals.

Skupin fell into a fire after being overcome by smoke in Australia during Season 2. Cohen says he spent three weeks as an inpatient and having rehab in Queensland following his accident. He managed to go home at the same time as the other contestants.

English had a cardiac problem during Season 4 in Marquesas. He was medically evacuated back to Los Angeles at the end of filming.

Kanegi developed a bowel obstruction and had to be hospitalized during Season 12 in Panama. He made it back to the show in time to be on the jury.

Spiders and Snakes

Burns, heart attacks, and bowel obstructions can happen anywhere, but the dangers of living and working alongside local plant and wildlife present unique dangers at each location. Poisonous critters are a big concern.

"As part of our Medical Risk Assessment," says Cohen, "we bring location-specific anti-venom for snakes, Box Jelly Fish etc." Camera crews are also trained in basic first aid and snake bite treatment.

Cohen says contestants can ask for medical assistance at any time and the team is almost always within 10-15 minutes away.

The medical team is on set with the contestants whenever they are gathered together in one place - at challenges and tribal councils, for example. When the team is not with the contestants, they can be summoned by any crewmember.

Comfort or Care?

Contestants don't have to be evacuated to get medical care - nor are they automatically disqualified for receiving help.

It seems like a fine line, but Cohen suggests that contestants are allowed to receive medical care to keep them healthy, but not necessarily comfortable. "They need stitches, they get them," he says, "but not minor dressings, Ibuprofen or other 'pampering.'"

"Our role is to keep contestants in the show, intervening where appropriate but without conferring an unfair advantage," explains Cohen. "We stress the importance of contestants learning the value of water and looking after their own hydration, but on a few occasions have had to administer IV fluids."

Some miracles of modern medicine do follow the contestants to their primitive lives on the show. Cohen says feminine hygiene products are "always discreetly available off camera." As well, he says, birth control or any other regular prescriptions any contestant is taking are also available.

It's good to know that CBS isn't planning on letting any game show contestants keel over dead in the race to garner ratings. As a fan of the show, though, I admit I'm a little disappointed that the Survivors were never in any real danger. Several have made on-camera comments about how dangerous it is out there.

Well, sort of.

So, has the rugged Jeff Probst, host of the show, ever needed the medical team's services?

"Jeff gets the usual crew woes: coughs, colds etc," says Cohen, "and I put stitches into his hand during a well-publicized 'machete mistake' during Survivor: Vanuatu."

Hah! After all these years, maybe Probst is the only true Survivor.