Brandi Glanville entered Special Forces: World’s Toughest Test determined to prove that years of health problems and fear hadn’t taken away her ability to push herself.

Her comeback lasted one challenge.

The former Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star was medically withdrawn during Thursday night’s Season 5 premiere after a backward helicopter jump into the water went violently wrong, leaving Glanville with a concussion, perforated eardrum, cracked rib, bruised sternum and a breast implant that she says was knocked out of position.

Glanville, 53, became the first celebrity recruit eliminated from the new season after over-rotating during the jump and slamming into the water.

The impact was so severe that Glanville says she immediately became dizzy and couldn’t hear out of her left ear.

Her description of what happened to her chest was even more graphic.

“My left boob was under my armpit,” Glanville told Entertainment Weekly while discussing the aftermath. (EW.com)

What viewers saw during the premiere was only the beginning of the medical fallout.

The First Challenge Went Wrong

Season 5 dropped its 15 celebrity recruits into Malaysia, where the show is putting them through military-inspired challenges in a jungle environment. Fox announced the cast earlier this summer, with Glanville joining a group that includes Candace Cameron Bure, Matt Barnes, LeSean McCoy, Oliver Hudson, Ruby Rose, George Santos, Alycia Baumgardner and Mauricio Umansky. (Foxflash)

The first mission immediately tested whether the celebrities were willing to override their instincts.

They were required to jump backward from a helicopter into the water before swimming to a floating platform.

Glanville was already frightened before taking the leap.

She explained on the show that her recent health struggles had allowed fear to become a major part of her life. Even leaving home had become difficult, she said, and participating in Special Forces represented an attempt to push against that fear.

“Recently, I have let fear rule me,” Glanville said during the episode.

Then she jumped.

The problem was her rotation.

Instead of entering the water cleanly, Glanville over-rotated and struck the surface hard. The episode showed her landing essentially flat against the water before struggling to continue the challenge. (TV Insider)

She Knew Immediately Something Was Wrong

Glanville said the impact felt enormous.

“I over-rotated,” she told Us Weekly. She remembered feeling as though her head hit the water first before the rest of her body slammed down.

“It was just like being run over by a truck,” she said. (Us)

She still attempted to swim.

That became another struggle.

Glanville said her body was in severe pain and she could effectively use only her right arm. Water from nearby jet skis was hitting her while she attempted to reach safety.

By the time she made it back, she knew she wasn’t dealing with ordinary soreness from a physical challenge.

She was dizzy.

Her chest hurt.

Her back hurt when people touched it.

She felt nauseated.

And she couldn’t hear properly through her left ear. (Us)

During the episode, Glanville initially believed she had cracked her sternum.

“My sternum is cracked,” she told the directing staff.

Later medical evaluation produced a somewhat different picture: Glanville says she suffered a bruised sternum and cracked rib in addition to the concussion and perforated eardrum. (People.com)

Then She Realized Her Breast Implant Had Shifted

The impact also created an unusual complication that wasn’t fully apparent to viewers during the episode.

Glanville says one of her breast implants was knocked out of position.

The force of hitting the water displaced the implant toward her armpit.

She later described looking at herself and realizing something was visibly wrong with her left breast.

The injury eventually required medical attention, adding another issue to a list that already included her head, ear, chest and rib. (People.com)

Glanville’s description — that her “left boob was under my armpit” — has quickly become the most attention-grabbing detail from her exit.

But the concussion and perforated eardrum were potentially more consequential in the immediate aftermath.

She Couldn’t Simply Fly Home

The eardrum injury complicated Glanville’s departure from the competition.

After being evaluated, she said she couldn’t simply get on a plane because of the perforation.

Instead, Glanville had to travel by multiple boats to reach the hospital.

“We had to take boats because of my ear to the hospital,” she told Us Weekly, explaining that the journey involved three separate boats.

Once she reached medical care, the extent of the injuries became clearer.

She had suffered a concussion.

Her eardrum was perforated.

Her chest and rib were injured.

And the headache from the concussion was persistent.

Glanville described the pain as something that simply wouldn’t go away. (Us)

Producers Medically Withdrew Her

Glanville didn’t voluntarily quit.

The show’s directing staff determined she couldn’t safely continue.

During the premiere, Glanville asked to see a medic after complaining that her chest hurt when she breathed.

The decision was then made to medically withdraw her from the course on Day 1.

That made her the first person eliminated from Season 5. (People.com)

For Glanville, that part appeared almost as painful emotionally as the injuries themselves.

She cried while leaving.

“I told my kids I wouldn’t be the first one to leave,” she said.

That promise mattered because her two sons were part of the reason she had agreed to do the show.

Glanville shares Mason and Jake with ex-husband Eddie Cibrian, and she said she wanted to demonstrate to them — and herself — that she could still take on something extreme despite everything she had experienced physically in recent years. (Us)

Instead, her body made the decision for her.

The Timing Was Particularly Brutal

Glanville entered Special Forces after a highly publicized period of health problems.

For years, she has publicly discussed unexplained facial swelling and other medical issues that dramatically affected her appearance and quality of life.

Those problems also became part of a larger public conversation because Glanville shared photos and videos of what she was experiencing while seeking answers.

By the time Special Forces came around, she viewed participating as a chance to stop allowing those experiences to dictate what she could do.

That’s why her pre-jump comments now carry additional weight.

She wasn’t simply nervous about jumping from a helicopter.

She was trying to use the show as a psychological reset.

Glanville said she wanted to go “balls to the wall” and jump back into life. (TMZ)

Then the first jump injured her badly enough to remove her from the entire competition.

She Still Doesn’t Consider the Experience a Failure

Despite becoming the first person sent home, Glanville says she remains proud that she attempted the challenge.

She didn’t refuse the jump.

She didn’t voluntarily surrender.

And even after hitting the water, she tried to finish.

Glanville said she had desperately wanted to avoid becoming the first celebrity eliminated, particularly because of what she had told her sons.

But once medical treatment became necessary, there wasn’t much of a decision left to make.

“I had to go to the doctor,” she told Us Weekly. “I was done.”

She nevertheless believes her sons can look at what happened differently.

Rather than seeing their mother as someone who failed the competition, she hopes they see that she was willing to attempt something she was terrified to do.

“I think that this still proves to the kids that I was kind of a badass,” she said. (Us)

The Injuries Didn’t End When Filming Did

Glanville also made clear in her post-premiere interviews that the consequences weren’t limited to the day of filming.

She told Entertainment Weekly that she was “still hurt” and described the entire ordeal as intense.

The concussion, chest trauma, rib injury and damaged eardrum required recovery after she left production, while the displaced implant created another medical issue to address. (EW.com)

She has described herself as being on the mend, but also acknowledged that recovering from that type of physical punishment at 53 isn’t the same as it might have been decades earlier.

“If I was 20,” she told Us Weekly, she would have liked to have been able to simply dive into the water and swim away.

Instead, one jump effectively ended her season.

One Challenge, Five Injuries, and an Immediate Exit

Reality competition shows routinely tease contestants reaching their physical breaking points.

Glanville’s premiere wasn’t much of an exaggeration.

She entered the competition as one of 15 celebrity recruits.

She completed one helicopter challenge.

She came out of it reporting a concussion, perforated eardrum, cracked rib, bruised sternum and displaced breast implant.

Then medical staff ended her run.

Season 5 will continue without her, with the remaining celebrities moving deeper into the Malaysian jungle and facing the show’s military-style selection challenges. Fox is airing new episodes Thursdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT. (People.com)

For Glanville, however, Special Forces became less about how long she could survive the course and more about what happened when she finally decided to confront the fear that had been controlling her.

She jumped.

She got badly hurt.

She was the first recruit sent home.

But Glanville says she doesn’t regret proving to herself that she was willing to take the leap in the first place.