Bruce Perreault reacts to being pulled from Survivor 44, and invited back for another season

Well, that couldn't have gone much worse.

Bruce Perreault was all smiles when he stepped onto the beach to play Survivor 44, but that smile quickly turned into a grimace when the 46-year-old insurance agent banged his head while ducking under an obstacle just minutes into the game.

A bloodied Bruce ended up blacking out, but after receiving medical attention appeared to improve and was able to avoid being evacuated from the game. However, back at his Tika tribe beach a few hours later, Bruce started experiencing severe headaches and was removed for his own safety. He was taken away on a stretcher just 12 hours after he started playing.

But Bruce's Survivor story could still end up having a happy ending. That's because Jeff Probst has already announced that the man who left way too early has been officially invited to come back and compete on a future season of the show. We caught up with the contestant-turned-patient-turned-redemption-seeker to get the full story on everything that went down both on and off camera, and how he found out he was eligible for another round of reality TV mayhem. You can either watch the interview in the video above or read it below. Also make sure to check out our interview with the ousted Maddy Pomilla.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Tell me in your words and from your perspective what happened out there at that opening challenge?

BRUCE PERREAULT: After having a conversation with a couple of different people yesterday at the [watch] party, they reiterated what I knew. I went in hard. I wanted to play the game hard right off the bat. I was the oldest guy there, so I had a little something to show with these young cats over there, and I had to be like, "Alright, let's go." And, yeah, impact ensued.

We see the blood and everything, you get the puzzle piece, you get back to your mat, and things start going south. What are you feeling there?

It definitely had to have been an adrenaline dump. I remember coming back with the puzzle piece, dropped it on the table, and then Sarah was in front of me and she had turned around and looked at me, and her face was like [yikes!], and then immediately I started thinking. I already saw the blood dripping down. It was dripping down on the puzzle piece. I saw it on my hand when I wiped my head. Everything started settling in once the adrenaline came down and the pain started, and it was just overwhelming and just took me to my knee.

You seemed to improve somewhat and you were cleared to continue. When did things start to go bad again after you got back to the beach?

Once we got back to the beach, there was a part we didn't get to see. I was getting the mud off of my body and I had stepped out of a pair of pants and my foot got caught in my pants, and I kind of went down and everything jerked forward. And that was it. That was the start to the end. The pain level was at seven already, and then it just immediately went to a 10. And then, before I knew it, I was just foggy, so I stumbled out to the beach and in came the docs.

What was the diagnosis. It looked like a concussion?

It was a straight-up concussion. I had this conversation with the kids this morning, and the biggest part of it all is that they thought it could potentially be a brain bleed of some sort because of the impact. That freaked me out the most. If they came to me and said, "Bruce, listen, you got a concussion. We're gonna give you some Ibuprofen and we're gonna monitor you, just try to stay awake tonight…" I would've been okay. But once they said that, I started freaking out. They knew they were not taking a chance at all.

What were your emotions like as they're telling you that you'd need to be removed from the game?

I was feeling absolute dread. Absolute dread. It was just a wave of emotions. There was a point in time, they actually showed it last night, where my arm was just straight, because in my mind I'm trying to hold onto that Fijian sand. I did not want them to pick me up off the ground. I didn't wanna go.

Because, first off, my tribe, they're awesome. Every single one of them were awesome. And it wasn't even just because of me getting medevaced out. They were awesome from the beginning. We had a camaraderie [and] gelled together so quickly. And it's like, "These guys are all awesome and I hate that I'm leaving because I know that I need them as much as they need me."

So what happened after they put you on that stretcher and on that boat?

It was a whirlwind. I got on the boat, they took me to another area, and then I flew via helicopter to the mainland. And then from the mainland it was a two-and-a-half-hour ambulance ride to the hospital. It was raining out and the pilot didn't want to fly in those conditions. And I appreciate that because I didn't want nothing going wrong.

I got to the hospital. Some of the nicest people in the entire world, they made me comfortable. The pain was gone from what they gave me. I got a CT scan and they determined that everything was perfectly fine. They kept me for observation for about six hours and then I was able to go back to Ponderosa.

I know with concussions, the symptoms can come and go. You can feel okay, and then a day or two later you're not feeling so great. There's a recovery process and everyone's experience is completely different. So what was it like for you? When did you start to feel some relief and were there some aftershocks?

The aftershocks were reliving everything in my head over and over and over again. But once I got back to Ponderosa, I stayed in a room, blinds closed. I coached football for 11 years, and so I know the concussion protocol. No TV, no anything. The lights were dimmed. The only time I actually really saw light is when they brought me what I was gonna have for lunch or for dinner. I stayed in my room and I was in my room for three days.

I remember going for a walk at one point in time and I was like, "Alright, I feel okay." I went for a walk, I opened the door, the light hit me and it was like, BOOM! — the symptoms of the concussion came back. It's no joke. It took about three days to kind of get back. And then as the days went along, I had a big hat, I had my glasses on. I had to be outside, but I was able to be fully protected. And then eventually it got better.

You know, normally this would be a real super bummer of a conversation to have, but there's a happy ending to this story. Jeff Probst announced on his podcast that you are officially invited back to play — the first post-season 40 person to get that invitation. When and how did you get that invite, Bruce?

[Laughs] Okay, so I am half blind. I'm old. This is what old people go through. I can't read my phone close to my face. I have to have my glasses on. So my phone was in my pocket, but my wristwatch, all the messages go and it just kind of kept vibrating all night. So we were watching the show, and then my phone [started buzzing], but I can't see it. I didn't care. I just let it go. I was having fun, mingling, talking to all my friends.

And then my wife and I came home and it was 12:45. I laid in bed, and my wife was already in bed and she's kinda looking at comments people are sending through social media. And my wife was reading it and I was like, "Oh, let me check my phone real quick." So I grabbed my glasses, and I'm laying in bed and I looked at my cast and everything that people are saying about them. And I'm like, "Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes."

And then I saw a couple of things like, "Oh my god, Bruce, did you see this?" And I'm like, "What the hell is this?" I clicked on it and it brought me right to Jeff's podcast. I'm listening, and then Jeff's like, "Cue the music…" and then he said it. I'm telling you, I bawled like a baby. I was so happy to hear his voice and to know that this is an invitation to play this game that I love, love, love.

It brought all the emotions I had — nine months of emotions. Because I knew what happened to me and I didn't tell anyone. My kids, last night was the first time that they knew exactly what happened. They saw the scar on my head. They knew that I had some kind of trauma. I even talked to them earlier in the day and said, "Listen, it was traumatic for me. It'll probably be traumatic for you, but I'm fine." And then all those emotions came forward — emotions about my kids, emotions about the game, emotions with my wife and her having to hold onto this for a period of time. And now it's just all flooded forward to I can redeem myself for having too tight of a shirt. The shirt was too tight. I couldn't get my arms down! [Laughs]

I love that Probst did not give you a heads up. He even spoke to you for that podcast and still didn't tell you he was inviting you back. He just let you find out like the rest of us.

They called me back but were like, "You're having a party, we're not gonna have you talk to Jeff." I'm like, "Wait a minute. No, I'll talk to Jeff!" And they were like, "Nope, you have your party and then we'll get you to talk to Jeff again." But that was great. It's super exciting.

Let's say you did not get that invitation to head back to the island. How would the experience sit with you, getting taken out like that so early without another chance to see what you could do?

You know what? it would've sat with me. Because I started getting to the point now of being okay with this. And then once everything hit and everything went through by way of the episode and the well wishes and the people that were there that were supporting me last night... Now, yes, they were people that I know and I love and they're very near and dear friends of mine, but the overwhelming support that I was being told was happening on social media and people that have never met me, I was just like, "Okay, this is my swan song. It's okay, I'm fine with it. It's good." And then I got this. I'm like, "AHHHHHHHHHH!"

So if you had your choice, do you want to come back on an all-returning player season or on a season with other newbies since you only played a few hours?

I don't care. I've had no ability to strategize, or to, like Yam Yam said, "poop in the ocean." I had no nothing, no ability to do any of that stuff. So, I don't care if it's a returning season, I don't care if it's newbies. I just want to go out there, I want to have a great time, expand the Survivor family, and meet people. To answer your question, I don't give a damn. [Laughs] I'll play with anyone.

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