The cast and crew of French reality Tv series Survivor have been dealt another blow as a doctor working on the show allegedly committed suicide just days after a contestant died while filming the programme.

Gerald Babin, 25, suffered a cardiac arrest after shooting a tug-of-war challenge on location in Cambodia last month (Mar13) on the first day of work on the 16th season of the show, which is titled Koh-Lanta.

Tv bosses axed the series after Babin's death, and now it has emerged that Dr. Thierry Costa, the physician who cleared him to compete, has been found dead in an apparent suicide in Cambodia.

News of his death was announced on Monday (01Apr13).

Costa, who worked on four seasons of Koh-Lanta, left a handwritten suicide note, which he reportedly asked to be made public, suggesting he was distraught following the loss of Babin.

In the message, which has been published in full, Costa insisted he treated Babin "in a respectable way, as a patient and not as a contestant" and was upset by "false accusations and assumptions" in the media.

Bosses at Adventure Line Productions (Alp), the company behind the series, issued a statement which reads, "Everyone admired his great professionalism with the participants and the production staff."