NBCWhether by choice or by act of God, Speidi keeps getting out of I'm a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!
Heidi Pratt was hospitalized Saturday in Costa Rica during her and Spencer's stay in "isolation" from the rest of the cast of the NBC reality series, after enduring treatment one family member said was tantamount to "torture."
Spencer accompanied his wife on the ambulance ride and remains by her bedside, her publicist, Rick Rhodes, confirms to E! News. Various reports said she was suffering from a stomach infection, but Rhodes declined to comment on the severity of her ailment.
The news was broken by Spencer's sister Stephanie Pratt via Twitter: "[Heidi was] rushed to the hospital and has an IV in her arm after being locked in a dark room for 3 days w no food or water. Pls pray she will be ok…Her family is flying out to see her in the hospital."
The younger Pratt blames NBC for going "too far" in punishing the Hills couple "like criminals" after they tried to quit the bug-eating, jungle-surviving show after just one episode and then begged to return.
"Im really saddened to hear that nbc felt it was ok to punish speidi so harshly-and torture them as if they were criminals," Stephanie Pratt tweeted.
But ITV Studios, which produces the show, insists it would never harm any of its participants.
"ITV has been producing this format around the world for many years and the health of the celebrity participants are of the utmost importance," the company said in a statement. "A medic and a doctor are present at the location at all times for all participants. All allegations of the celebrities being deprived of food and water are completely untrue."
Whatever the case, last week NBC exec Paul Telegdy said the "insincere, lazy, entitled" Pratts required a stint in "isolation" before producers would decide the twosome's fate on this Monday's show, vowing that the Pratts "really are going to bare their souls."
(Originally published June 6, 2009, at 8:05 p.m. PT)