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Survivor castaway Jake Latimer said his snake-bite removal from the game was a “blessing in disguise”In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, the castaway shared how his son was born less than 48 hours after he returned home unexpectedly”I opened my eyes, and the snake is latched onto the bottom of my foot, mouth wide open,” he said
Survivor star Jake Latimer is feeling “super lucky” after thinking he was “going to die” when a venomous snake latched on to his foot while filming in Fiji. And, as he now explains, it turned out to be a “blessing in disguise” after all.
The season 49 contestant — who was unexpectedly airlifted out of Fiji and pulled from the game in the Wednesday, Oct. 8 episode of the CBS reality competition series — reflected on the ordeal in a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, published the following day.
Speaking with the outlet, the 36-year-old Latimer recalled the moment the venomous banded sea krait snake “latched” onto his foot while in the water before the show’s medical staff stepped in to assist. While at first, he thought he felt a “crab claw on the bottom of my foot,” he opened his eyes to find something entirely different.
“I opened my eyes, and the snake is latched onto the bottom of my foot, mouth wide open. But it didn’t hurt at the time. I just felt a tingling kind of sensation. And that’s when I yelled to Alex [Moore, another castaway]. I’m like, ‘Guys, I think this thing just bit me!’ Then, as we saw on the show, everything else kind of followed after that.”
Jake Latimer in ‘Survivor 49’.
Robert Voets/CBS via GettyÂ
The moment, Latimer explained, was followed by people “running out [of] the jungle that I didn’t even know that were there” in an effort to take a look at the snake and assist, before things got “pretty chaotic.” After making his way to production, Latimer finally learned he was bit by “a very venomous snake.”
“And when I was lying on that stretcher, man, you saw me say, ‘I’m going to be a dad…’ I’m getting emotional about it, talking about it right now… But it’s like, ‘I’m going to be a dad. Am I ever going to get off this island? Am I again going to see my child? Ever am I going to meet my child?’ And that’s when it sunk in, because I had tubes coming out of me. I had oxygen masks on,” he said.
“Let me tell you something, though. That Survivor medical team is something else. They were so good,” Larimer added. “And I’m not just saying that because I’m on the show, but they made me feel safe. But it was a lot. Like, I work in a prison, man. I’ve seen some scary things in my life. That has been the most scared I’ve ever been in my entire life. When you think that you’re dying, it’s a feeling that I’m never going to forget.”
After discovering that the bite was indeed a “dry bite” (without venom), Larimer admitted that he had to “respect” the show’s decision to not let him back in Fiji. He then told EW he was airlifted to a hospital Brisbane, Australia before flying home — getting there “just under 48 hours before” his child was born.
“I think that God put that snake there for a reason, just to get me home,” he said. “And I hate saying that because I wanted that game so bad, but I also got to see the birth of Jax, and that’s worth a million dollars. And I was there for my wife. So it’s a blessing in disguise. I’m [otherwise] never going to get that experience back of seeing my kid be born. Even though, like I said, I have unfinished business out there.”
The castaway’s son, Jax Paul Kenneth Latimer, was born on May 2. “The doctor said, ‘We don’t think it’s going to work,'” he previously told EW of trying for a child. “So I applied for Survivor, just kind of like something to do to get my mind off of it.”
“And while I was in the process, she got pregnant and now our firstborn child is going to be born while I’m here on the island.”
Alex Moore, Jake Latimer, Sophi Balerdi, Jeremiah Ing on ‘Survivor 49’.
Robert Voets/CBS
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Host Jeff Probst revealed during a chat with EW published on Oct. 8 that he “got an urgent call on my cell” when it all went down with the snake, and that “a very experienced medical team was ready to receive” the castaway within minutes.
“When we had to tell Jake he was being pulled from the game, it almost felt like relief for Jake. I think he knew it was coming,” Probst, 63, said. “The amount of medical attention being paid to him was unmatched in any other evacuation on Survivor. Even if he had been physically able to return, I don’t think he would have been emotionally ready.”
“It seemed to me that all his thoughts were on his wife and unborn child. So when he got the news he was being pulled, it was as if he was able to fully breathe for the first time.”
Survivor 49Â airs Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET on CBS.