PERHAM, Minn. — Former Dent resident Jon Femling is the lead doctor on a new prime-time TV show called “Extracted.”

He explained the premise of the show, which airs at 7 p.m. Mondays on Fox, is that one person is dropped off in the wilderness with only a canteen and solitude. They have two teammates, who are mostly family members. The teammates barter and partake in challenges against other contestants to earn supplies. They can also watch and hear everything their teammate in the wilderness is enduring. The team that survives the longest wins $250,000.

The 1993 Perham High School graduate became the show’s medical doctor after he saw an advertisement encouraging people to apply for a new survivalist TV show. He flippantly suggested to his stepdaughter they should enter as a family, as they often enjoy outdoor excursions.

“She got excited about it and filled out all of the paperwork,” he said.

After a few rounds of auditions and a background check, the 50-year-old was notified his family was not selected for this go-round. However, a few weeks later, he received an email inviting him to apply to be a head doctor on the TV show.

“I had to go through a couple more rounds of auditions, but under a very different context; where I’m now the medical provider,” he said.

Femling is a clinical vice chair of emergency medicine at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. The practicing doctor also brought with him a unique skill set and knowledge that likely made him the top contender for the job.

“I’m on our county’s helicopter rescue team,” he said. “We practice going out into different environments, and not only keep ourselves alive, but to be able to keep patients alive as we get them out of whatever environment they are in.”

Femling has also conducted research on the impacts of heat exhaustion in the Grand Canyon. He said wearable devices helped monitor people’s health during the deadly heat that can occur there. He looked for signals from those devices that identified if a person was struggling or doing well.

“From that work, I was connected with the Army to look at similar signals of who would be at risk of getting altitude sickness,” he said, noting he was able to apply what he learned from both research efforts to the TV show environment of “Extracted.”

He said that when he first arrived on the set of “Extracted,” he worked with producers to define potential hazards the survivalists would face while living in the mountainous wilderness of British Columbia, Canada. He also helped identify potential hazards of challenges, so those producing the show could make changes to ensure the safety of contestants, as best as they could.

“These were real people put into a really outstanding challenge,” Femling said. “There’s not a single participant that didn’t push themselves to whole new levels while they were out there.”

Femling led a team of medics, several EMTs and a local physician who were also part of the emergency crew, should a contestant need medical support. He was the only physician who lived on set during the monthlong production.

From his RV at the base camp, Femling had access to more than 100 cameras and more than 60 microphones that were so high quality he could hear contestants’ hearts beating as they slept.

“It was intense,” he said. “I was there the whole time, but it was definitely worth it. It was an amazing experience.”

In addition to enjoying the uniqueness of the opportunity, Femling took a scientific approach and learned about the impacts of limited nutrition on a person’s physiology.

“I knew exactly how much everybody ate; what they ate and how that affected them,” he said.

He also saw training opportunities for helicopter exercises that he helps provide in New Mexico. Typically, their focus has been getting through a single night. However, if weather or mechanical problems were to ground a chopper for a few days or weeks, now he has better insight into how rescuers can survive longer periods of time.

“It completely evolved my understanding and appreciation for just how much the human body can do,” he said. “And it will help me in teaching the next round of (rescuer) providers how to survive, and do well out in the environment.”

Making his mother’s dream come true

Femling grew up in Minnesota lakes country. The son of the late Ken Femling and Annie Graba, of Sebeka, was part of a young group of boys that helped start a Scouts Troop in Dent. He said their goal was to camp and enjoy each other’s camaraderie. While they achieved their goal, Femling said he didn’t “quite make it to Eagle Scout.”

In addition to having an appreciation for the outdoors, Femling loved science. His mom hoped he would utilize his skills to become a doctor one day. However, Femling’s youthful heart was set on becoming Spider-Man.

“And, when I couldn’t be Spider-Man, I wanted to be a scientist,” he recalled.

Femling explained by the time he reached high school, he had a biology teacher who further fed his love for the analytical career path.

“We didn’t have AP classes or anything like that back then,” he said. “But, my teacher was amazing. He made an entirely new class on comparative anatomy when I was a senior in high school. And it just sparked a love for science and fanned that flame.”

After collecting his high school diploma, Femling realized the classes to get into medical school were all science-related. He signed up but was still unsure if he would pursue a doctor’s license. From his freshman to junior year of undergraduate studies, he simply loved class and the science he was learning. When a friend informed him of an opportunity to become a doctor of medicine, while simultaneously earning a doctorate, he applied and was accepted.

While attending college in Iowa, Femling learned the skill of rock climbing, often traveling to Colorado to practice the skill. Eventually, he also became a mountaineer and climbed Kilimanjaro and Denali.

Now, well into his medical career, Femling is the clinical vice chair of emergency medicine at the University of New Mexico.

“What that means is, I’m kind of in charge of my department’s emergency medicine clinical service lines,” he said, noting his department saw 124,000 patients last year. “I’m also the medical director of the only Level 1 trauma ED (emergency department) in the entire state of New Mexico. We saw a little over 56,000 patients last year. And we take care of the sickest patients in all of the state.”

Femling noted the average hospital in the U.S. has 25 beds in its emergency room. The location he works at was boarding about 70 patients a few weeks ago, he said.

“So my emergency department alone is roughly the size of two to three hospitals in the rest of the United States,” he said. “So it’s huge, and that is why we call it an emergency department instead of an emergency room.”

Having so much responsibility at work made it a challenge to step away for the TV show. And, at home, there were more challenges with leaving for an entire month. Femling and his wife, Biannca Mendoza, who is a teacher at a juvenile detention center, are raising six children together.

“I think it helped that her daughter, my stepdaughter, was the one that kind of got us into it in the first place,” he said.

He added that the production company was generous, as they allowed his wife to sign a nondisclosure agreement and visit during the production, which helped on the home front.

“The only reason I was able to step away was because of my amazing teams, colleagues and family,” he said.

Femling explained that while he was able to do some administrative work remotely, those at his job figured out how to make his absence work by taking on additional duties to fill the gap until he returned.

“I am endlessly grateful with just how amazing all the people around me are to help me do this,” he said.

Femling’s TV adventures may not be over. He said his contract has options of tackling another season.

“I think it just depends on how well the show goes,” he said. “I think its premiere was the highest-rated reality TV show in Fox’s recent history. And so they’re pretty excited about it. So, hopefully, that means, fingers crossed, I get to go back out next year because it would be great.”

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