I Had to Survive
How a plane crash in the Andes helped me to save lives
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- 3,99 €
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- 3,99 €
Publisher Description
On 12 October 1972, a Uruguayan Air Force plane carrying members of the 'Old Christians' rugby team (and many of their friends and family members) crashed into the Andes mountains. I Had to Survive offers a gripping and heartrending recollection of the harrowing brink-of-death experience that propelled survivor Roberto Canessa to become one of the world's leading paediatric cardiologists.
Canessa, a second-year medical student at the time, tended to his wounded teammates amidst the devastating carnage of the wreck and played a key role in safeguarding his fellow survivors, eventually trekking with a companion across the hostile mountain range for help.
This fine line between life and death became the catalyst for the rest of his life.
This uplifting tale of hope and determination, solidarity and ingenuity gives vivid insight into a world famous story. Canessa also draws a unique and fascinating parallel between his work as a doctor performing arduous heart surgeries on infants and unborn babies and the difficult life-changing decisions he was forced to make in the Andes. With grace and humanity, Canessa prompts us to ask ourselves: what do you do when all the odds are stacked against you?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Canessa was a 19-year-old medical student and rugby player at Stella Maris College in Montevideo, Uruguay, when he became famous as one of 16 people who survived a 1972 plane crash in the Andes for 72 days by eating the frozen flesh of their deceased companions. While the survivors' collective story was captured in Alive, Piers Paul Read's iconic 1974 book, Canessa who went on to became a world-renowned pediatric cardiologist at the Italian Hospital of Montevideo now draws parallels between the life-altering decisions he made on the mountain and the hope he provides to desperate parents by performing lifesaving heart surgeries on newborn infants and fetuses in utero. In this inspirational book, he recounts in breathtaking detail his harrowing journey across a harsh, uninhabited region of the Andes with fellow crash survivor Fernando Parrado to find help. Canessa references the life-and-death decisions (choosing cannibalism was his idea) that prepared him to become the most delicate of doctors. Coauthor Vierci interviewed Canessa's family members, patients, and rescuers to connect the dots between the doctor's survival ordeal and his medical work. The approach doesn't result in a smooth narrative, but it makes for riveting reading.
