Review: I Had to Survive: How a Plane Crash in the Andes Inspired My Calling to Save Lives by Roberto Canessa and Pablo Vierci

5 stars for I Had to Survive: How a Plane Crash in the Andes Inspired My Calling to Save Lives by Roberto Canessa and Pablo Vierci.

I learn about this book through a Facebook share by one of my friends. Almost immediately, getting hold of and reading this book takes priority over any other book. It is just as well for I have finished reading the book on hand and ready to move on to the next one.

On 13 Oct 1972, the 45-passenger airplane - Fairchild FH-227D - chartered from Uruguay's air force to carry the players, alumni and fans to a match in Chile crashed into the Andes mountains, in what was fittingly known as The Valley of Tears (a valley encircled by jagged peaks).

Two young men, 19-year old Robert Canessa and 22-year old Fernando Parrado aka Nando, who know absolutely nothing about climbing, take courage - after being stranded for two months in a broken fuselage in the snow with friends dying around them - to hike across the Andes mountain for ten days at an altitude of 16,404 feet and temperatures of twenty-two degrees below zero, to seek help.

I Had to Survive is the story as narrated from one of the survivors, Dr Robert Canessa, then a second year medical student. His story becomes world famous because of how he survives that long in the snowy mountains -  by resorting to the deceased friends for nourishment - to hike across peaks and in one instance, spend the night sleeping practically standing up on a pole above a chasm. More than that, his candid and harrowing account is a larger picture of how his ordeal on the mountain has influenced the course of his life, and later on, his career as a pediatric cardiologist. He has shown how efforts and decisions taken in the face of adversity can transform a person forever and make one a stronger person.

Reading this real life account of a story wrenches as much as it warms my heart. It brings to my mind the Chinese idiom "人定胜天" (rén dìng shèng tiān). There are several meanings and interpretations depending on the context which when translated go like this: man's will, not heaven, decides; man by his efforts can conquer nature; man can conquer nature; man is the master of his own fate; man's determination will conquer nature; man's fixed purpose is superior to heaven; man's will conquers heaven; man will conquer nature; man will surely conquer nature. And by all means, we have a living example as proven by the man who writes this very book.

Much as I enjoy reading this humble, easy-to-read first person account together with a collection of sharing by members of his family, individuals involved in the rescue and testimonies of his patients and their families, a part of me longs to find out more about Nando as well as the rest of the survivors and understand the transpiration of the 1972 event from their perspectives. With this in mind, I shall read this book, Alive, written by author Piers Paul Read; a book which is published in 1974, two years after the event. Stay tune.


Publisher: Atria Books
Publication date: 1 Mar 2016

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On October 13, 1972, an Uruguayan air force plane carrying members of the Old Christians rugby team—and many of their friends and family members—crashed in 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 pediatric cardiologists. As he tended to his wounded teammates amidst the devastating carnage, rugby player Roberto Canessa, a second-year medical student at the time, realized that no one on earth was luckier: he was alive—and for that, he should be eternally grateful. As the starving group struggled beyond the limits of what seemed possible, Canessa played a key role in safeguarding his fellow survivors, eventually trekking with a companion across the hostile mountain range for help.

No one could have imagined that there were survivors from the accident in such extreme conditions. Canessa's extraordinary experience on the 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 the world-famous story that inspired the movie Alive! Canessa also draws a unique and fascinating parallel between his work as a doctor diagnosing very complex congenital cardiopathies in unborn and newborn infants 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?

*Blurb from author's website*

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