Even though he’s already seen a contestant medivaced out of the Australian Outback after falling into a fire (you can relive that moment after the jump), Survivor‘s Jeff Probst said last night’s incident with Russell Swan frightened him. “It was the scariest moment I’ve ever had on this show…nineteen seasons I have never been more afraid in my life of how bad things were.”

During a reward challenge, Swan collapsed in the middle of the competition due to hydration. Although the severity of the problem was initially unclear (all of the survivors were blindfolded), Probst immediately paused the challenge once he recognized the situation. The challenge was later canceled altogether.

“For the next 45 minutes we monitored Russell’s vital signs. We gave him water from his canteen. We gave him oxygen. We propped him up and gave him time to try to relax and get calm,” Probst detailed for Entertainment Weekly. Although there are times contestants return to the game after a visit with medics, the 42-year-old attorney was never given a choice. An unexpected drop in blood pressure forced the producers to end Swan’s run for him.

Despite being upset about his abrupt exit, Russell says (now) that Probst was right to make the call. “Oh, hell yeah. I was dying. I looked at my eyes. That’s what got me—my eyes. My wife was screaming, ‘Oh my gosh, you’re dead! You’re dead!’ And I grabbed her and was like, ‘I’m fine, I’m fine. We’re here. That happened some time ago.’ But when I saw that footage. ... Had they not taken me out, it would have definitely been negligent on their part,” Swan told the Los Angeles Times.

You can watch Thursday’s entire episode here. In the meantime, the moment below is a classic scene involving Season 2’s Michael Skupin.