One of the survivors 50 years after the tragedy in the Andes: “They transferred life to us”

Plane crash on October 13, 1972 A Uruguayan rugby team crashed into the Andes while traveling to Chile. The deaths of many of its 45 passengers went down in history because of the inhumane conditions they faced, including the epic fact that 16 of them were found alive 72 days later, and the consumption of the deceased’s flesh to survive.

“We have done nothing to repent of carrying our friends in body and spirit, which would have been a great honor for me if I had died and they had used me to live.”Uruguay’s Canessa says in a video interview with foreign media reporters in Argentina, including EFE.

Doctor specializing in pediatric surgery says he feels “privileged” to be aliveHe notes that he and his companions were “somewhat advanced” at the time, “because there was no heart transplant, kidney, liver or anything,” and feeding on the remains of other travelers helped them get ahead.

“I feel like they’ve transplanted life into us,” he said calmly.

human experiment

In the book “Snow Community” (Penguin, 2007), which inspired director Juan Antonio Bayona his next film on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the accidentCanessa compares her experience to the experiment of a “crazy and damned scientist” who might use humans instead of guinea pigs.

In this context, half a century later, “human experimentation is getting stronger, emotions are healing and sorrows don’t have the same power then he was” and this allows him, in his case, to “protect himself”.

“Look, This is what I did on the mountain, I don’t know if it’s right or wrong. “These are facts, you don’t need to put anything subjective, just tell us how things turned out,” he said.

In this “human experiment” that he never gets tired of talking about in interviews and motivational speeches he gives like many of his colleagues around the world, the solidarity of the “snow society”, as they say, stands. in the midst of pain, exhaustion and despair.

“I think it was a good mix, and it was a good testimony to how it was to be thrown in terrible times and be resilient, fail to try, and not give up without trying,” he explains.

Is it chosen?

Canessa and Fernando Parrado Two explorers walking for help for several days until they stumble upon a Chilean muleteer.Sergio Catalán, who warned the world that Uruguayans injured in the mountains do not die.

When asked who chose them, the doctor smiles and remembers that they were something. “the rulers of the lowland society”, but that there was resolved by his physical condition: ‘Nando’ was a “strong candidate” for his “steadiness” and joined after listening to his partner Arturo Nogueira’s longing for “healthy legs” to “walk” and not feel “one”. interference”.

“It gave me an infusion of heroism and hope, the opportunity to die walking with the possibility of it coming, rather than dying in the trunk we’ve already destroyed,” he explains.

After encountering the mule, he offered to return for Canessa the next day. “it was the best ‘tomorrow’ of your life”.

“Don’t let the plane crash”

“Sometimes we run after material things that don’t bring us happiness,” the doctor, who has an extreme level of solidarity in his daily life, sums up his experience as follows: “Don’t let the plane crash to let you know how good you are”.

With this feeling, remember this The one that surprised the most during those 72 days was “the absence of life because there is no snow, ice, flies, nothing”..

Like every December since 1973, the survivors of this accident will come together to remember the date when they were rescued and brought back to life, as Canessa says, “transplanted” by their friends.