‘Survivor’ Contestant Suffers Shocking On-Camera Accident
Even longtime host Jeff Probst called the incident “crazy.”
Robert Voets;Youtube/CBS
A Survivor contestant’s shocking on-camera injury has horrified fans of the long-running reality show.
While chopping wood with a machete under Fiji’s scorching sun, contestant Brady Booker accidentally cut his hand so severely that the 27-year-old professional wrestler lost part of his thumb.
The second episode of the hit survival competition show’s 51st season, which aired on Wednesday, Sept. 30, showed the incident in gruesome detail.
“I’m missing a quarter of my thumb,” Booker told his Toka tribe teammates, holding his blood-covered hand.
Brady Booker lost a piece of his finger while chopping wood. Pictured here at work during episode one.
Robert Voets/CBS
Booker discovered the piece of thumb in the sand, and his teammate, Patt Cannaday, held it in a seashell while the competitors waited for the show’s doctor to arrive.
“He’s bleeding everywhere,” Booker’s tribe member Lewis Kelly told others.
Maggie Nestor, another Toka member, talked about the moment in a confessional: “I look at that hunk of meat—I mean, it’s huge. And I’m like, ‘He’s out. There’s no way he’s going to stay in this game.’“
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Still, Booker was convinced he could continue.
Brady Booker was visibly emotional when he thought the injury might send him home.
Youtube/CBS
Booker described the accident to the doctor as “lopping” off “a little corner” of his thumb.
“I truly feel like I can still compete,” he said, growing emotional. “I just don’t want to be an idiot who lost the biggest opportunity of his life.”
Danny Kilby and Brady Booker on episode 1 of season 51 of “Survivor,” before Booker suffered his accident.
Robert Voets/CBS
The doctor bandaged Booker’s finger and prescribed antibiotics, but cleared him to stay in the competition.
“Doc takes my thumb, puts it in that plastic bag, and then sticks it in his pocket,” Booker described the moment to the cameras.
Adding, “It was one of the weirdest exchanges of my life, but one of the best exchanges of my life because at the end of it, I got to know I get to stay in this game.”
The Season 51 cast of “Survivor.” Top row: Angelica Loblack, Brady Booker, Ori-Jean Charles, Ana Sani, Eric Macksoud, Patt Cannaday, Devin Way, Linnea Capobianco, and Rob Antonson. Middle row: Kristin Flickinger, Mike Pinsky, Cristian Chavez, Danny Kilby, Lewis Kelly, An “Thein An” Nguyen, and Aaliyah Puglia. Bottom row: Sharonda Cox, Jenna Doore, Alexis Levine, Carter Krull, and Maggie Nestor.
Robert Voets/Robert Voets/CBS
He said his thumb was “a little numb” after the incident, but claimed he could still do what the demanding show requires, like grabbing things.
Booker’s team won the immunity challenge, and he remains in the game. The next episode, filmed earlier this year, will air Wednesday, Oct. 7.
Brady Booker wanted Jeff Probst, the show’s host and executive producer, to see the lost piece of his thumb.
Robert Voets/CBS
In a surprising twist, Booker asked the show’s host, Jeff Probst, to see the finger.
This year, Probst shares parts of his Survivor’s diary on Instagram.
Of the gory accident, he wrote, “Got a morning call from Dr. Barry in Medical. Brady was using a machete to split some wood and chopped off the tip of his thumb. Legit. Chopped. It. Off. As in, no longer attached to his thumb.”
He continued, “The crazy part is that even though Brady was in obvious pain, with blood pouring out, he was still aware enough to ask his tribemates to try and find the tip of the thumb in the dirt!”
Probst wrote that he agreed to Booker’s request and went over to the medical tent to see the missing piece of finger. “Sure enough. That’s the tip of a human thumb,” he wrote. “Another Survivor first.”
The host continued, “Brady had a great sense of humor as he pleaded with our medical team to wrap the piece of thumb and put it in a cooler to save for him after the show so he could take it home. Talk about a one-of-a-kind Survivor souvenir. Most players are happy with a treemail.”
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