“The Game Is Cool But I Didn’t Want to Give Up My Life!” – RealityNewsOnline’s Exclusive Interview with Survivor: Samoa’s Russell S.

Russell was a great guy to interview – he spoke at a reasonable speed and was understandable, not to mention he had a lot to say and I could really feel the depth of his emotions as he talked. Unfortunately, I would have needed triple the time I’m allotted to get through all the questions I had for him! But we hit the most important points and you will get to find out all about what happened as he saw it at the time and as he sees it now, plus his feelings on the game overall.

RealityNewsOnline: Hello, Russell, and thanks for taking the time to talk to us here at RealityNewsOnline!

Russell S.: After last night, it’s all gravy, baby. Thank for you taking the time to talk to me.

RNO: First and foremost, how are you doing now?

Russell S.: I’m doing fantastic. I’m in perfect health. I’m going to, probably sometime in the near future, get my 42,000-mile checkup anyway. But I’m doing good, feeling fine, no ramifications from “the incident,” as I am coining it.

RNO: While you were on the ground, you suggested it was just dehydration – was that the main cause?

Russell S.: Here’s where I have to be a little honest – the medical professionals there were absolutely wonderful people. Me, on the other hand, I was an absolute jerk because I didn’t want to be taken out of the game. They were pretty much the enemy to me at that time. They tried to explain and talk to me and I’m not hearing it. I’m like, I don’t care if I almost died, that’s great but almost isn’t good enough. I don’t want to hear about blood pressure or heart rate or dehydration or electrolytes – put me back in the game! In the fog of me being an animal, I was able to hear something about dehydration, but that was about as specific as it got.

As far as I know, it was severe dehydration. I think it was also some sheer dehydration. That whole dealing with being the chief, always having to make decisions, having every decision scrutinized. I never really slept. I’m agonizing over every decision. I’m tired and hungry, I’m a big body and need a lot of calories. It was probably a combination of exhaustion, dehydration, and malnutrition as well.

The chief thing was the layer that basically broke the camel’s back. I ended up on the ground in that challenge because I was chief. When we lost that first challenge, John was on his back and sucked at the swimming. It wasn’t just that but that Russell picked John and he sucked at the swimming. After that point, I’m not sleeping, I never got a chance to ever turn my brain off. It’s like playing a chess game but I’m playing on one side and nine other people on the other side. It felt like that because every move is going to have ramifications for some individual ,which is good if it’s just one individual, but it could be a group and if it’s a group and we lose, I’m screwed.

The chief thing – maybe I’m overestimating the importance – it not only put a target on my back but caused my ultimate demise. I completely ignored myself and focused so much on trying to make the best move every move, every day, every minute; and in that five-day run-up leading to the challenge, I can’t remember putting a canteen to my lips. I definitely tried to make sure other people had canteens and they were drinking because I wanted them to be strong and figured everything else would be taken care of.

Unfortunately, that’s not the way it happened. The chief thing was huge for me. I don’t know why it wasn’t for Mick – maybe because we had the stronger tribe – but it almost literally killed me.

RNO: How long did it take to recover?

Russell S.: That’s a really good question. There’s been a number of people, my wife included, who have asked me that. I have no sense of time in that whole thing. Between going on the ground and ending up at Ponderosa, it could have been five minutes, a day, two days. It was amazing to me watching the show how different it was from what I had thought had happened.

If you ask me, I had recovered in five minutes. Obviously that’s not the case. I didn’t realize I had passed out the second time – when to me I looked dead. Even with that, to me it was ten minutes. Probably in actuality, it was in the neighborhood of a couple hours. I never felt bad, but I was doing bad, obviously.

It’s amazing what the mind will do – if there’s a gap, it just fills it in. I was just in some alternate reality. I watched last night and was absolutely shocked. I have no memory of that whatsoever. To me, I pushed the ball, I was tired, I took a knee, I was resting until Laura said lift your side up. In my mind, I lifted and hit myself in the chin and hit the ground – what’s the big deal? Obviously that’s way out of touch with what really happened.