There are no epic essays, no elaborate narratives, that I can write that will do justice to the end of Terry Deitz’s experience on Survivor: Cambodia — Second Chance better than Terry’s own words.

Deitz, famous in Survivor lore as one of the most dominant challenge performers in the history of the game, saw his time cut short on Survivor at the start of last night’s episode after learning that his son, Danny, was in danger at home. Terry immediately hopped on a boat with Jeff Probst and began the long journey from Cambodia to his home in the United States, standing by his family as Danny struggled through a life-threatening heart condition.

At the end of the episode, we learned that Danny has since received a heart transplant. Here’s everything else you need to know about what happened with Danny and what’s still ahead, based on my phone call with Terry this morning.

WIGLER: How are you doing, Terry?

DEITZ: We’re exhaling over here today. I’ll tell you what, it’s a great start to a long journey. There’s a whole lot more to it that we have to follow through with. The new heart is pumping very well. It comes down to his body accepting the foreign object in his body, you know what I mean? So, yeah, we’re exhaling. We’re happy to have our son home. He was on the precipice, really really. Thank God, you know? Thanks for all the prayers and support. It’s been great.

WIGLER: I can’t imagine any scenario where it’s okay to hear this news, but what a jarring way to wake up in the middle of the night. Jeff Probst does not come to camp unless something’s wrong. What’s going through your head when he shows up and pulls you aside?

DEITZ: It’s funny, because you know — all you guys, fans and everyone know that it’s never good information when Jeff comes to you in the middle of the night. First thing that went through my mind… he grabbed me and we walked down the beach, about a hundred yards. We set up that part of the shoot, away from the rest of the tribe, because… anyway. And he didn’t know exactly what was wrong with Danny. He just knew basically what he told me. We found out more later on.

On the way down to the beach, I’m thinking, I have an 85-year-old mom and a mother-in-law, and I’m thinking nothing good happened with them. One of them. Then Jeff turns around and he starts talking about Danny. The first thing in my mind is a car crash or something. Danny had just gotten his license before I left. I had no idea any of this had happened. His body had compensated so well. It was one of those enlarged heart type situations that an athlete gets and luckily my wife got him off the lacrosse field before he fell down and died. The day before I left to go out to California, I was throwing 50-yard bombs to him on astroturf. He could have passed out right there. It’s that kind of a hair-trigger thing at that point in time. So it was really, really difficult. I had a hard time processing it. A) I was barely awake, and B) Wow, all the sudden, your son? It was just: “Where’s the boat? Where’s my stuff? We need to go. I need to get home.”

As you saw on the show, Ciera and Kass took it the worst. They have little kids at home. I gave everyone a real nice hug, and hey, there was my Survivor second chance — and now it’s time to go get my kid a second chance. The minute we jumped on the boat, Jeff handed me his phone and I was able to talk to [my wife] Trish, Danny and [my daughter] Kayla. We Facetimed a little bit, but the service was a little halting. But I got to see their faces. Trish gave me some more in-depth stuff about what was going on. I was able to pass that onto Doctor Eliza, the company psychologist, and also Jeff, because he didn’t know a lot of details, either. He wasn’t allowed to know at that point.

I want you to put this out there: I can’t thank them enough. The whole Survivor team, from Jeff and the producers to Doctor Eliza to the guys on the boat and the crew. Everybody who got our itineraries together. It was a crazy ride. We went from a small boat to a big boat to base camp…

WIGLER: I can picture it, having been out there — it’s several boat rides all over Koh Rong, and then a four hour drive to the airport, and however long it takes to get home. I can’t imagine having to get out of there in such a rush.

DEITZ: You know, luckily Josh, they had WiFi at Phnom Penh and they had WiFi in Hong Kong. The hardest part was the 16 hour ride from Hong Kong to Boston with no communication. It was really, really hard. I did not sleep for 24 hours straight. I finally banged back a couple of scotches and got a couple of hours of sleep.

WIGLER: Well earned!

DEITZ: Yeah! [Laughs] Finally, I woke up as we were coming down into Boston. Survivor had just set up a limousine at Boston Logan. We run out of there, we run out of the limousine, they rush us over to Boston Children, and my wife runs out of the foyer in the lobby and gives me a hug. I felt I was able to take just the lion’s share of the weight off of her shoulders and put it on mine. This started happening like the day after I left, that all of the symptoms started presenting, where he was getting sick to his stomach. His liver, his kidneys, everything started breaking down, to the point where he got whisked in an ambulance right to Boston Children’s. They saved his life.

If I can ask you to write this down and put it out: People can go visit childrenshospital.org/dannystrong. That’s where to go to look at the fund, and look at everything, the number one pediatric cardio wing in the world. You’ll see his story and a lot of other ones, I’m sure. You’ll see him talk about it, and the doctors, and all that business.

I swear, man. This summer was just one big story. What Survivor ended up giving me was, hey, I got to go to Cambodia and hang out with my friends for a couple of weeks. Luckily I didn’t get voted off. But anyway, it’s been amazing. It’s the start of a long journey.

WIGLER: Tell me about the journey ahead. Where’s Danny now, and what happens moving forward?

DEITZ: The first three months are critical because his immune system has been squashed, basically. We need to make sure it doesn’t reject a foreign body in his body. That’s where we’re at right now. He goes back to Boston once or twice a week. If he doesn’t do lab work here in town. He gets a catheter put in his neck every two weeks to get a biopsy of his heart. They look for rejection. Even down to the cellular level, they’re looking at all kinds of stuff. They also put in stuff that measures the pressure of his new heart.

His new heart is working fabulously. He feels so, so much better. I mean, the dude is walking miles a day, riding life cycles, hanging out with his football team to throw the ball around once a week, goes to Friday night lights football games, hangs out with his girlfriend… he’s actually back driving again, so you better watch out! [Laughs] He’s getting back to being a normal teenager. He can’t go back to school until second semester. He really doesn’t have an immune system. We’re all Purell-ing ten or twelve times a day, staying away from his face. He can’t get sick. That’s the thing. But everything else is working so well. We’re just thankful and prayerful and happy to have him here. It’s truly a blessing.

WIGLER: There’s so much I want to ask you about your game this season, but it doesn’t feel like the right time. Hopefully we have a chance to talk about it further down the road. What I do want to ask about is your view on how family has played a role in your Survivor experience. Arguably the high point of your time on the show was when your wife visited you in Panama. Now you have this moment, leaving the game for a family emergency, on the other end.

DEITZ: Yeah. You know, it really was the zenith of my Survivor career, having Trish there and everything. This time around… you know, me and Kelly Wiglesworth and a couple of the others have been waiting for such a long time to come back. Timing is everything. Luckily we got voted back on. It was an honor to get called back onto the game I’d been thinking about for such a long time. In saying that — and Kass and Ciera said the same thing — it’s a game I love, but you know what? It’s a game. My family is everything.

You’ve been out there before so you kind of know what it’s like. It’s a hardship. We don’t just go out there and do a hardship with nothing backing you up. Knowing that Danny was back home telling Trish, “Don’t call dad. Don’t call him.” He had no idea he was on the precipice of dying, and at the time, Trish didn’t either. And she was like, “No way. We had conversations with the doctor, and he needs to be home.” If I had told Jeff how bad it was — if he knew at that point — it would have been crazy. Crazy, crazy.

But going from a high point with Survivor involved, to this… this has obviously been the hardest thing I’ve ever gone through in my life. My wife and I have gone through the worst days of our life. Because it was the family getting together for a happy moment on Survivor the first time, and it was my family and my wife and Danny being strong as a family this time for a whole other purpose: To make sure one of our tribe mates doesn’t go down.

It’s funny, Survivor was part of both of those things, an extreme high point and an extreme low point. My whole Survivor family, everybody from the cast, they’re calling, and they’re spread throughout the world. And Jeff is e-mailing me last night, people from CBS, everybody — and all you guys! Tweets that I’ve heard from you guys and all that stuff. It’s been wonderful.

WIGLER: You have a bunch of brochachos on your side, Terry.

DEITZ: Ah! You liked that, huh? [Laughs] Well, look. You have your bros, and you have your muchachos. I thought Danny and I made that word up three years ago. We were messing around doing something with his friend. He and his friends were making up words with “bro” in it, and I came up with “brochacho,” and they thought that was cool. My wife was like, “You’re not going to say that on TV, are you?” And then somehow it slipped out!

WIGLER: I’m glad it did. I love your Deitzisms.

DEITZ: Well, thank you.

WIGLER: Danny is not a character on Survivor, but he’s a huge character in your life, and a huge part of your Survivor story. We don’t know Danny. Who is Danny?

DEITZ: Danny Deitz is… a couple of his teachers have said that he’s the kindest soul they’ve ever met. Josh, if he was anymore laidback, he would fall down. But don’t underestimate him on the football field. Before all this started, he was 6’2″, 195 pounds, fast with big hands and running great patterns. He was a maniac on the lacrosse field. He’s just that kind of kid that goes inside the white lines, and almost changes. He’s super competitive. I wonder where he gets that from. [Laughs] But seriously, he’s an artist. He’s a superfan not of Survivor, but of The Walking Dead.

WIGLER: No kidding! I’m a fan.

DEITZ: You should talk to Danny about it, I swear to God! He sits there and gives me the finer points. I’m like, “These L.A. zombies don’t look so bad…” And he’s like, “Dad, it just happened. They haven’t rotted yet!” And I’m like, “Where are the children zombies?” And he goes, “There’s not much meat! They got all eaten already probably, so there’s only adults!” [Laughs] It’s great.

He’s getting a Make-A-Wish, and he’s going to go down [to The Walking Dead set] and meet the cast and most likely become a zombie on the show. He’s an artist, and he’ll draw what he wants to look like, and hopefully they’ll make him up to look like that kind of zombie. He’s super excited about that. He’s a great kid.

This is what I told him when I first saw him when I came back: “Danny, nobody loves you for Danny Football. Nobody loves you for Danny Lacrosse. They love you for Danny Deitz. I just want you to get better, I want you to grow old, I want you to have children that give you the joy that you’ve given me. Let’s get together and kick ass and get you better.” That’s where we are. He’s a great kid, man. Great kid.

Learn more about Danny Deitz and his story here.

Josh Wigler is a writer, editor and podcaster who has been published by MTV News, New York Magazine, Comic Book Resources, Digital Trends and more. He is the co-author of The Evolution of Strategy: 30 Seasons of Survivor, an audiobook chronicling the reality TV show’s transformation, and one of the hosts of Post Show Recaps, a podcast about film and television. Follow Josh on Twitter@roundhoward.

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