Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors

by Piers Paul Read

a good doctor always instils confidence into his patient. He therefore looked Platero straight in the eye and, with as much conviction as he could put into his tone of voice, said, ‘Well, Enrique, you look all right.’ ‘Do you think so?’ said Platero, pointing to the piece of steel in his stomach. ‘And what about this?’

Platero, his attention once more upon his stomach, contemplated his projecting innards with some dismay, but before he had time to complain, Zerbino said to him, ‘Now look here, Enrique, you may think you’re in a bad way, but there are plenty of others much worse off than you are, so don’t be a coward, and just come and help. Tie that up with a shirt, and I’ll see to it later.’

‘You can make it tough, God,’ he prayed, ‘but don’t make it impossible.’

“I come from a plane that fell in the mountains. I am Uruguayan”.’