In its first few episodes, Teen Mom: Family Reunion has succeeded where the other shows in the Teen Mom franchise have been failing lately:
It’s consistently delivered the drama, and reminded fans why they fell for this bunch in the first place.
Most of the conflict has happened naturally, such as when Jade Cline and Ashley Jones nearly ripped each other’s heads off on night one.
But producers have also made taken steps to make the show more eventful:
Take this week’s obstacle course, for example.
A team competition involving a giant inflatable rubber slide probably isn’t what producers had in mind when they pitched a reality series about pregnant high school students, but hey — it beats another story line about Kail’s kitchen decor, right?
Anyway, the obstacle course turned from a silly situation into a serious one in seconds, as Briana DeJesus collapsed at the finished line and began shouting that she couldn’t breathe.
Bri’s castmates held their breath as an ambulance rushed her to a nearby hospital.
Thankfully, it turned out to be a simple case of dehydration and overexertion, and DeJesus made a full recovery.
Still, the scene was a frightening one, and in a new interview with TooFab, Briana opened up about the flood of emotions that she experienced in that moment.
“I don’t remember anything. I don’t remember getting up off the floor into the car, I don’t remember my sister telling me to wake up. Hearing her voice was so scary, because I knew she was concerned for me and there was nothing she could do to help me out,” she told the outlet.
“That was really scary but luckily nothing major happened and I was able to get discharged and now I’m fine, but that was very intense. I will never do something like that again.”
Bri says her memories of the incident are spotty, but she remembers a feeling of terror as she arrived at the hospital.
“I remember a little bit of the ambulance driving there. I remember the hospital bed and the doctors and nurses rushing to me and taking out blood and putting in an IV and putting all these stickers to check my heart and having a catheter to pee,” she recalled.
“I was like, ‘What is happening?’ I really thought I was dying. I was like, ‘Okay, this is a lot, what is going on here?’ It was definitely a lot and I was in the hospital for a while too.”
Of course, Bri hasn’t lost her sense of humor.
She says that despite her stumble at the finish line, she has a clear memory of winning the race!
“I remember running to the finish line. I actually won by the way, I don’t know why they made it seem like [Bar Smith] won, because I made it to the finish line before he did,” she told TooFab.
“I remember being mad, like, hold on a second, I won, why are they cheering for Bar? And then after that, it all hit me and I just collapsed to the ground. I couldn’t breathe,” DeJesus said.
“Every breath I took was so hard to even take it. I couldn’t feel my legs, I couldn’t feel my arms. Nobody was taking it serious at first. I was like, I need help, I cannot breathe and that’s when the medic came and I don’t remember anything after that.”
As for exactly what happened, Bri says it was probably a combination of factors that brought her down.
“The sun was crazy. I have lupus, so I was on prednisone and another medication to keep that under control and that mixed in with going from zero to 100 because it’s a race, there was no warm up, we didn’t stretch, we didn’t run for 10 minutes to get our heart pumping,” she theorized.
Despite her hospitalization, DeJesus insists that the TMFR experience was a positive one overall.
“I definitely would do it again, for sure. It was so much fun. We all were able to not have our kids and bond together,” she said.
“All of us are the only ones who know what it’s like to be on a television show, so us being able to bond and talk about our stories and get to know each other off of social media was really really cool and I would definitely do it again,” Bri continued.
“Hopefully all the moms can come next time.
Well, other people probably know what it’s like to be on a television show, but we think we know what Bri is trying to say.
Hopefully, TMFR will become an annual tradition.
Although they might want to go a little lighter on the physical challenges next year.