Woman admits to 'almost dying' whilst filming notoriously controversial reality show

A former contestant on one of reality TV's most controversial makeover shows has claimed she neared the end of her life during filming.

Kari Bravata appeared on Fox's The Swan, the 2004 reality series which promised women a dramatic transformation through plastic surgery, dental work, fitness and therapy.

At the time, the series was sold as an opportunity for women to transform their lives. Contestants were given access to career coaches, personal trainers, therapists and aestheticians he promise of emerging as a completely transformed version of themselves.

But the makeover process went far beyond a new haircut and a bit of confidence training.

The women were separated from their families for long periods of time, and were reportedly prevented from seeing their own reflections during the process.

At the end, contestants were placed into a beauty-pageant-style competition, with the women pitted against one another after their transformations.

More than two decades later, Bravata has opened up about the frightening reality behind the cameras in a new Hulu documentary, The Swan: Behind The Mirror, which revisits the infamous series and the women who took part.

The new film, directed by Erin Lee Carr, brings former contestants and people involved with the series back together more than 20 years after it first aired. According to Hulu, it explores what happened behind the scenes and the lasting impact the experience had on the women involved.

The former contestant has previously described the experience as one in which she 'almost died for reality television', a statement that features prominently in the trailer for the new doc.

According to Bravata, she suffered a serious complication following her surgery, with her lungs filling with fluid and her oxygen levels dropping.

Bravata claimed she 'almost died' while under the knife (Fox)

Because production has never been transparent with her about exactly what happened, she says she has had to piece together the events from her own hazy memories and accounts from cameramen who were present in the operating room.

"From what I've heard, they tried to wake me up and take me off anaesthesia, pulled the tube out expecting me to wake up, and I didn't," Bravata recounted in the bombshell documentary.

"During me not waking up, my lungs filled with fluid and my oxygen started dropping. It got to a low enough point that all the cameras got kicked out, and that's the extent of what I know happened."

She has also said she may never know the full extent of what happened during the procedure.

The documentary's trailer reveals just how intense some of those procedures were, with another former contestant describing undergoing 10 hours of surgery followed by just one day of recovery.

The contestants could compete in a pageant (Fox)

A third recalled: "The nurses weren't around. It was horrific."

Perhaps most surprisingly, former stars say they weren't initially told they would ultimately have to compete against one another in a televised pageant.

"When did they let you know that you would be competing against the other women?" one asks in the trailer.

"Last week leading up to the pageant, all the manipulation started again," another alum adds. "We didn't sign up for a pageant."

And Bravata isn't the only former contestant revisiting the experience.

In the documentary trailer, one woman says: "When the show started airing, it was big. I don't think we knew the nightmare we signed up for."

Another former member of the production team appears to describe the show's priorities rather bluntly: "Our role was to decide who would make good transformations for TV. There are no victims in life, there are only volunteers. We want to see drama."