Knife injury ends survival show bid in record time

Friends Martin and Zein set an unwanted record on Alone in the Wilderness after Martin sliced his finger with a knife on the first day, forcing the pair to withdraw, DR reports.

Martin, stressed and surrounded by mosquitoes, was carving bark in the Finnish wilderness when the knife slipped, cutting deep into his finger. He immediately felt something was seriously wrong.

“I could feel the knife hit something deep in my finger. The pain was different—it scared me,” he said. A doctor confirmed he had lost function in the tip of his finger, leaving him unable to continue.

Under the show’s rules, if one participant quits, both must leave. Martin said the hardest part was disappointing his friend: “My thoughts were on Zein the whole time.”

Zein, who had hoped the trip would help process his father’s death three months earlier, took the setback in stride. “It was a crappy situation, but we had to laugh a bit to cope,” he said.

Martin’s finger has since healed, though he still has some numbness. Both men remain close and have not ruled out trying again—“without the knife,” Zein joked.