Survivor: Kaoh Rong -- Brains vs. Brawn vs. Beauty castaway Caleb Reynolds was medically evacuated via helicopter from the game during Wednesday night's broadcast on CBS.

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Caleb, a 28-year-old Army veteran and former Big Brother contestant from Hopkinsville, KY, dropped to the ground after the Reward Challenge from what appeared to be dehydration and a dangerous increase in his body temperature. His Gondol tribe, the Beauty tribe, all cried when he left the game because they viewed themselves as a tight-knit family.

At the end of the broadcast, the To Tang tribe, or the Brawn tribe, ousted Alecia Holden, a 24-year-old real estate agent from Dallas, TX.

In an exclusive interview with Reality TV World on Thursday, Caleb talked about his Survivor experience and medical evacuation. Below is what he had to say. Check back with us soon for more.

Reality TV World: You seemed fine while trying to land the last ball at the Reward Challenge. Was your body starting to break down at that point already or did it hit you all at once afterward when you were celebrating the win?

Caleb Reynolds: I was -- well, let me say this, I felt fine. During the entire challenge, I felt fine. I did notice a couple things, like, I stopped sweating. Of course I was very, very hot, but I wasn't going to stop due to me being hot. So, when I was rolling the last ball, as you said, yes, I felt fine.

But I'm guessing my adrenaline was so, you know, high. It kicked in and I guess my adrenaline was what was carrying me, because as soon as I made that last ball and I fell to my knees and I fell backwards, and I relaxed my body, at that point, when I was like, "Yes, it's over," I think that's when it really hit me.

I got real dizzy, my eyes started getting blotchy, like [my vision] started getting a little blurry. And of course my skin was already dry and I wasn't sweating, so of course I was dehydrated way before all that. I was dehydrated. I wasn't even sweating during the roll of the balls, like, I stopped sweating way before that -- during the middle of me digging.

So, yeah, I felt fine. But I believe probably Cydney Gillon and Debbie Wanner did as well. And watching closely, I realized with Debbie, it didn't hit her until later too, like they had won the challenge and they were all dancing around and happy, and then as they sat down and she rested for a minute, she started feeling it.

So I'm guessing that's kind of what happened to me as well, you know, the energy was high and I wanted to win. I was just a go-getter; I was giving it all I had, and then when I relaxed, my body gives in and I was like, "Okay, now I can rest. We won this." I think that's when it started. That's when my body really started getting that feeling of heat exhaustion.

Reality TV World: You appeared to drift in and out of consciousness. How much of that whole situation do you actually remember?

Caleb Reynolds: I would say the only part that I really remember fully -- and I actually answered him the second [time] -- when [Jeff Probst] had his hand on my head and he said, "Caleb, can you hear me?" I could hear him but I couldn't respond. It was like I was in a dream kind of. I heard him say it, but I couldn't respond.

And then he asked me again. I don't know if that's how they showed it, but I think that's how they showed it on TV, was him asking me again, "Caleb?! Can you hear me?" And then I kind of opened my eyes a little bit and he said, "Okay, there's your eye!" At that moment, I remember seeing him and he said, "We have to take you out of the game."

And he said, "The doctors just said you're beat up and you can't continue." And on TV, and the part that I remember, is I said, "No," like I shook my head "no." Because I remember him saying, "We have to take you out of the game." That part I remember out there on the island, when he told me that and I said, "No."

And then I woke up once again on the helicopter and the only thing I really remember then was Dr. Joe had his hand on my chest. I'm assuming he had a bag of ice or something on the center of my chest, and I just reached for my necklace and I noticed that it wasn't on my neck.

And, pretty much, what was on that necklace meant everything to me. I took it with me there and I wanted to make sure I brought it back home. When I woke up there, I reached for my necklace and it wasn't there. So, I kind of told Dr. Joe. I pointed to my neck and he took the mask off, and he was like, "I can't hear you buddy! I can't hear you."

I ended up getting the whisper out, "My necklace." And he ended up finding it and he put it in my hand, and then I was out again. And then I woke up in an ambulance, and from the moment I woke up in the ambulance, I was pretty much conscious from that point on. I woke up and that's when I really freaked out. But from that point on, I was pretty much awake all the way until now.

Reality TV World: Was the recovery quick? How long did it take until you were feeling like your old self again?

Caleb Reynolds: I was in the ICU for five-and-half days. The whole time I was in the hospital, I didn't feel like myself. On Day, like 3 or 4, after I had had seven or eight bags of saline pumped into me, I started to feel better. The doctor said my face started to fill back out and my body started to fill back out again, so I started to feel much better on Day 3 or 4 of the process.

It was a good four or five months being back home after all of it that I started feeling okay. When I got back home, I continued going to the doctor to make sure that I was okay, and you know, they kept me from going to the gym, they kept me from being out in the heat too much. I would say between five and six months was the full-out recovery to where I felt just amazing again.

Reality TV World: Were you surprised to see your tribemates get as emotional as they did once you left the show? And also, what was it like for you and your family watching the episode back? Jeff speculated it was probably very emotional for all of you as well.

Caleb Reynolds: Watching my tribe be emotional and all that, it made me feel good. I got emotional seeing them emotional. Because, you know, again, I wasn't awake during any of it. I didn't see or hear any of them crying. I didn't know that they were dealing with that.

But, you know, it made me feel good. It made me feel like I was needed, like I was wanted on the tribe. Someone had commented on social media and they said, "Hey, all of your team crying like that obviously meant you were really liked and you probably weren't going anywhere any time soon."

And when they made that comment, I thought, "My tribe must have really -- even though I only knew them for, I don't know, like 11 or 12 days, we obviously had built that rapport." Honestly, if it would've happened to one of them, I probably would've been the same way.

When you're out there and you're fighting tooth and nail in some of these challenges just to win some salt and pepper, you know, that's what it was for! It was for salt and pepper.

And when you see one of your own in your tribe -- not to sound boastful, but is a big part of your tribe, you know, a lot of these challenges take a lot of strength and man power to get through -- like [Nick Maiorano], if he was the one that left, it would've been like, "Dang! Alright. Here we go. We're going to have to pick it up now because we lost an anchor in our tribe."

So seeing them emotional, it made me realize that, you know, they care about the game, but they also care that I'm human as well. They realize there's a million dollars at stake, but when it comes down to it, it was nice to see them emotional. It meant they actually really did care about me as a person and they hated seeing me go through that.

Be sure to check back with Reality TV World soon for more from Caleb as well as our exclusive interview with Alecia Holden.


About The Author: Elizabeth Kwiatkowski

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