From Injury to Victory: How OhioHealth Provided Care for Kyle Fraser Before His ‘Survivor’ Win
Photo courtesy: Robert Voets
A week ago today, Season 50 of Survivor premiered on CBS. Ahead of the new season, we caught up with Season 50 contestant Kyle Fraser, who previously competed in Season 48 and won. He shared what almost stopped him from competing two seasons ago and how he persevered through his medical journey.
In the winter of 2023, Kyle Fraser got the call that he was being considered for Survivor Season 48. At the time, he was living in Columbus, serving at the U.S. Court of Appeals through a clerkship, and managing lingering injuries from his college athlete days.
“I was a college athlete, but was continuing to lift after college, which had been some time at that point, but I wasn’t in the best shape I think probably from a functional perspective, I had lower back issues and hip issues,” Fraser said.
Before traveling to Fiji for the show, Fraser knew he needed a full physical evaluation. That’s when he connected with Erica Mantell, MD, sports medicine physician at OhioHealth.
“That’s sort of how I found Dr. Mantell, and we started devising a plan on how to fix some of my lower back and hip mobility issues,” Fraser said.
“When I first met Kyle, he came in with some back and hip issues that he’d be dealing with and luckily on exam everything looked mostly muscular, things that could be worked out with physical therapy,” Dr. Mantell said. “He mentioned that he also needed to establish with a primary care doctor here in Columbus, and I was happy to do that for him. We were able to get him set up for the immunizations he needed before he could travel abroad to Fiji.”
Fraser began physical therapy through NovaCare Rehabilitation in partnership with OhioHealth, working out four days a week. But while training at an American Ninja Warrior gym, he suffered a serious injury.
“As I was going through physical therapy, as I was training to compete on Survivor, I actually had a distal biceps tendon tear, it was funny enough, at an American Ninja Warrior gym,” he said. “I was swinging from one rung, so from one rope rung to another and you know there was a couple of people in the gym, and it literally sounded like a gun shot went off.”
“Unfortunately, Kyle did come back complaining of a new issue that happened while he was at the gym, he said he heard a loud pop near his elbow, and I immediately was concerned about a distal biceps tendon tear,” Dr. Mantell said.
“It went completely limp while I was training and it was one of the scariest things I’ve ever faced. I couldn’t pick up a 5-pound dumbbell,” Fraser said.
Fortunately, it was only a partial tear. Dr. Mantell recommended a PRP, or platelet-rich plasma, injection.
“PRP or platelet rich plasma is one of the best treatment options for multiple musculoskeletal conditions including tendon sometimes chronic tendon issues and even arthritis,” she said. “PRP is your body’s platelets, so we actually draw your blood, and we spin it down and just localize only the platelet cells which are your body’s blood cells that produce growth and healing factors. And we’re able to inject that with ultrasound guidance exactly to the area of the injury.”
“As mortified as I was when I popped my arm and had to go back to them to see what was wrong, they were two times as mortified because they knew how much Survivor meant to me and I really appreciated that,” Fraser said.
It wasn’t an immediate relief for Fraser, it did take a couple of weeks for his arm to fully recover and regain strength, but he shared that the shot was entirely worth it.
“It was entirely worth it because when I came back, I could tell both in physical therapy and in the gym doing other upper body movements that it did heal faster, it did work.”
Fraser went on to win Survivor Season 48. “I felt completely normal, I competed, you know I won multiple challenges, caught a fish, was doing everything out there in the jungle to survive and win, what everyone else was doing, I felt great and I’m so grateful for it,” he said.
“The OhioHealth team, it’s going to sound so cheesy, but they really did feel like family. I was constantly communicating with Dr. Mantell and her team through the portal. It felt like as soon as I would send something off, they would send something back. I’ll be honest, that’s not my stereotypical sort of vision or general experience of medicine usually there’s a little bit of distance, usually it’s a bit more hands-off you’re in and you’re out but it did not feel like that whatsoever,” Fraser said.
Dr. Mantell said, “We were so happy to hear that his hip, back and elbow had all held up through all the physical challenges of Survivor and his exam was all very reassuring that he did not seem to have any lasting effects from the injuries he had gone through and the pains he had been dealing with previously.”
Fraser now lives in New York with his wife, Maggie Turner, where he works as an attorney for a record label. “That was an incredible year,” he said, reflecting on the journey that tested and transformed him.
