Reality TV Competitor Faints and Falls Into Fire, Suffers Serious Injuries

A now-streaming reality TV competition included a terrifying evacuation.

One of the players in Netflix’s Outlast: The Jungle had to bow out after suffering burns to 25% of his body. Sean Jacobs, age 38, left the survival series in Episode 2 after he fainted and fell into a campfire — also colliding with a pot of boiling water.

As Jacobs explained in a lengthy Entertainment Weekly interview, he was trying to stoke the camp’s fire and prep some drinking water for the team. After doing the task for around 45 minutes, he stood up and blacked out.

“So I’m in a squat and I stand up too fast, and I was out, and that’s when I fell on it (the fire),” he recalled. “But the time between me falling and being pulled out was arguably less than five seconds. And I’m the happiest man in the world, to be honest with you, because it could have been so much worse. I may not have a left leg right now.”

He added, “I freaked out and looked down, and my skin was peeling off my legs.”

After getting the best treatment he could on the beach, he had to leave and begin a four-week hospitalization.

“I had to be put under anesthesia six times to get them (the burns) clean,” Jacobs recalled. “Thank goodness, because at the end of that process I had to have my bandages removed and cleaned not under anesthesia a couple times, and that’s another experience. And I don’t ever wanna go through that again or have my worst enemy experience that.”

While we encourage you to read his whole account in that EW Q-and-A, just know that Jacobs is still confident in his survival ability. He’d even like to compete on Outlast again, saying: “I hope I get another shot at redemption to prove myself.”