Dr. Roberto Canessa is a pediatric cardiologist, world-renowned for his work with newborn patients and prenatal echocardiography at the Hospital Italiano of Montevideo, Uruguay. In 1972, Canessa was a second-year medical student when the plane carrying him and members of the “Old Christians” rugby team—and many of their friends and family members—crashed into the Andes Mountains. Canessa played a key role in safeguarding his fellow survivors, eventually trekking with a companion across the hostile mountain range for help. I Had to Survive: How a Plane Crash in the Andes Inspired My Calling to Save Lives (Simon & Schuster) offers a gripping and heartrending recollection of the harrowing brink-of-death experience that would forever change the trajectory of Canessa’s life.
Médico y exjugador uruguayo de rugby. Se graduó como médico cardiólogo pediatra. Ha sido galardonado tres veces con el Premio Nacional de Medicina en Uruguay y en 2015 fue designado Honorary Fellow of the American Society of Echocardiography. Participó en escritura de Alive! y La sociedad de la nieve. Sobrevivivió a un accidente de aviación sobre la Cordillera de Los Andes a 16.404 pies de altura y con temperaturas de 22 grados bajo cero.