Why Wasn’t Bi Nguyen Medically Evacuated From ‘Survivor’? Jeff Probst Explains

Warning: Article contains spoilers from last week’s episode of Survivor.

Quitting, getting voted out, and medical emergencies are the three types of exits castaways of Survivor can make.

During the pilot episode of Survivor: David vs. Goliath, as previously reported by the Inquisitr, Pat Cusack was medically evacuated from the game after a freak accident during a boat transport. Four episodes into the 37th season of the CBS series, and a second member of the David tribe has exited for medical reasons.

A key difference between Bi Nguyen’s exit and Pat’s exit is Pat wasn’t given a choice. The Survivor medical team pulled him from the game for his own safety. Bi, on the other hand, technically quit the game of her own accord for medical reasons.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, Jeff Probst explained Bi’s injury was a unique situation as the medical team did not feel her injury merited being removed from the game.

“Bi is an athlete, and she was concerned that if she continued to stay in the game she might further aggravate the injury and do permanent damage to her career as an MMA fighter,” Probst continued to explain.

Ultimately, Bi felt the risk the injury posed on her career was not worth staying in the game.

Jeff added: “There will be some who will argue that she could have stayed through the next immunity challenge and if the David tribe lost they could just vote her out, but that’s not how Bi rolls.”

Jeff noted that Bi was a “determined person.” Once she had made the decision to leave the game because of her injury, he didn’t believe there was anything anyone could have said to change her mind.

While someone making the abrupt decision to leave the game can sometimes throw a wrench in future plans for the castaways, Probst confirmed the tribe swap was planned before Bi announced her decision to leave the game.

“I actually removed one buff from the tray, in front of the Survivors, just before we did the swap,” Jeff admitted.

According to Jeff, they did have a slightly different game plan in mind for the tribal swap that they had to alter when Bi decided to leave the game. “We’ll save [that] for another season,” he explained as he spoke of the original game plan.

As far as how Jeff felt about Bi’s decision to leave the game, he applauded the castaway and admitted to having a great deal of respect for her decision.

“I respect Bi for knowing her body well enough to know what she needed to do for her own well-being.”

According to Goldderby, Bi does not regret her decision to leave the game.

“Looking back, I don’t regret it because it would have been a bigger regret to tear it and not be able to fight anymore,” Bi explained.