Biggest Loser player Tracey. NBC photo
On Tuesday's season 8 premiere of The Biggest Loser, viewers were left in the dark somewhat on the fate of contestant Tracey, who collapsed after valiantly trying to finish a one-mile run with the other contestants.
Last we saw her on the show, she was helicoptered away to the hospital, where she stayed until the end of the show.
Turns out, she suffered from heat stroke, according to a Web-exclusive clip from Hulu.com. Dr. Robert Huizenga visits Tracey at the hospital and gives her the news. He explains that because of the amount of body fat, her body holds onto heat too efficiently and can't cool off -- hence the heat stroke.
Kinda like running in a head-to-toe parka.
Here's the clip:
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Comments
My opinion is she also had rhabdomyolysis. It appears she spent at least 7 days in the hospital, and Bob said to her after she came back to the ranch "You can't do the workouts everyone else can, and you need protein to build up the muscle you broke down." The extended hospital stay, Bob saying muscles broke down, and her weak legs on the balance beam sounds a lot like rhabdomyolysis, and I can understand why the show would want to cover it up, because that would be irresponsible action on the part of the shows medical advisors to have let an unconditioned person continue to traumatize muscles that had clearly been exercised to failure. They should have shut her down as soon as she went to the ground the first time. The crawling, crawling, crawling, then the aid from the other contestants to continue walking sent her leg muscles into rhabdomyolysis.
She may have also had heat stroke, but that isn't what kept her in the hospital for 7+ days and partially destroyed her leg muscles
I'm very critical of how this show treats its contestants. Yeah, it looks great when the trainers push hard and they succeed but every season it seems like more people are ending up in the hospital. It's only a matter of time before someone gets seriously hurt, ends up disabled, or even dies on this show, regardless of how much medical help they get. The cutthroat competitive side of the game doesn't help.
I agree with Mark; I'm an elite level marathoner and I would NEVER push myself like that repeatedly - diminishing marginal returns until someone gets seriously hurt. Their bodies are not conditioned for that extreme level of exertion and throwing them into a hardcore routine like that is dangerous. I was rather shocked/iratated even last season when they had the last 4(?) contestants "run" a marathon - even after months of lifting weights and running intervals on the treadmill, they were not in shape to cover 26.2 miles. Covering that distance at any speed puts incredible stress on the body and you don't cross the finish line without damage, no matter how much you train. It was foolish.
considering her CPK is still rising it has to be rhabdo
I'm in total agreement with Uncle Rhabdo. I went through Rhabdomyolysis after some hazing in college and ended up in the hospital for a week with a heart monitor attached. Tracey has done some serious damage and I think her best bet is to leave the show, get help and stop trying to 'play the game' because she's not winning anyone over. That's my opinion though.
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