When should I kill my friends?

On expert realism mode, if a survivor is incapacitated in the safe room at the end of a level, how much health do they spawn with on the next level? Are they still incapacitated?

I usually kill anyone who's hurt so they can spawn with full health, but this is risky because the safe room door remains open while you're doing it. Incapacitating them would be faster, but it only makes sense to do so if they spawn with full health.

Solution 1:

If a survivor is dead when the safe room door is closed, they will return with 50 permanent health on the next level.

If a survivor is incapacitated when the safe room door is closed, they will return with 30 temporary health (the same kind of health received when taking pills or adrenaline) and will no longer be incapacitated.

Therefore, it's always better to kill your friends if they have less than 50 health.

Here is a video demonstrating my answer: