I Had to Survive

Dr. Roberto Canessa, Pablo Vierci

AUTOBIOGRAPHY: GENERAL. 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.