Fernando Parrado: The ultimate survivor
F: No, nothing similar. The only thing I’ve helped in was once in a car accident, but there can’t be a comparison. Sadly, after being through hell and back, I can say that nothing I’ve seen has ever compared to what I lived.
I: Have you felt again the need to feel an adrenaline rush through your body, another situation of vertigo?
F: That tragedy taught me that you have to live your life and enjoy every moment. I could’ve been anything else, a writer, lawyer, anything, but I chose to be a racer. That was my passion, but I did it in a technical way, where my life wasn’t at risk. I am a pilot; I did the course 8 years after the accident as a way to overcome my fear of flying. I was bound to do so. I liked riding a motorcycle, a car, but I was scared of going on a plane. I learned to do it and enjoy it without fear with the help of a friend.
F: I really remember that dialogue with my father, he said: “We can’t modify the past, however, we can feel and remember it and it will hurt, let nature cure you. And at first I thought, that’s it, that was the worst in my life. During more than 20 years, I had a life without thinking about the Andes. My ultimate glory in the world are friends, and by being surrounded by them, I’ve been able to go on.
I: If there is something positive from your experience, what is it?
F: The most important is my friends and I got from this limit situation, where death in unavoidable, is that there’s no possibility to get out. It changes you; it changes your life forever. When people think about your death and you hear on the radio that the search for you is over, it’s like going to the doctor and the doctor telling you “You have one week or five days left”. The material things stop mattering. The only thing that matters is the love and affection you feel for your loved ones. Everything else disappears.
I: Have you experiences another situation where your life has been at risk? Have you helped people in a limit situation like that?