This is 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. Canessa 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. Print run 75,000.

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?

"It's the unfathomable modern legend that has become a testament to the resilience of the human spirit: the 1972 Andes plane crash and the Uruguayan rugby teammates who suffered seventy-two days among the dead and dying. It was a harrowing test of endurance on a snowbound cordillera that ended in a miraculous rescue. Now comes the unflinching and emotional true story by one of the men who found his way home"--Page 4 of cover

When Coche Inciarte boarded Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 on Friday 13th October 1972, he planned to sit next to his best friend Gastón Costemalle at the back of the plane. But another boy got there just ahead of him, and Coche found a seat further forward. Ninety minutes later, Gastón was gone - sucked out of the back of the plane along with several others when the plane struck a peak in the Andes. Miraculously, twenty-nine passengers - members and friends of the Old Christians rugby club - survived the initial impact. Stranded in the mountains for seventy-two days, Coche and his companions endured one of history's most extraordinary struggles for survival. Several died of their injuries and eight were killed in an avalanche that trapped the remaining boys in the broken fuselage for three days. Developing gangrene in one leg, Coche was rendered largely immobile. Unable to contribute to the more physical tasks, he made it his mission to raise the spirits of his fellow survivors through humour, love, and support. Coche survived the Andes, but only just; and in this uplifting and thought-provoking memoir - written in memory of his friend Gastón - he brings alive his time on the mountain and reflects on the profound effect that it has had on his life, and on what it means to be human.

TRUE STORIES. On December 22nd 1972, the world discovered that sixteen of the forty-five passengers of the Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 that crashed in the Andes seventy days earlier were still alive. Pedro Algorta has never spoken of his experience but he breaks his silence of over 40 years and gives a first-hand account of one of the most incredible stories of human survival and team spirit. Pedro delves into how he personally lived those seventy days in the cordillera, the day-to-day struggle to survive, and how with difficulty, a lot of hard work and strong team spirit the group created a survival machine in the mountains. Each one of us has our own mountain - our own story - and understanding it helps us make sense of our path in life and to see the way ahead. We are all capable of surviving our Andes.