I’M ALIVE
I attended a four-day event about breaking free of the rules that stop you from having the life that you want to lead.
When I first had the idea to have an organization for nurses that would empower them, it was really scary to me because I usually help people one-on-one but to help an entire profession was a little overwhelming. So I’ve been seeking whatever resources I can to help me with this endeavor.
The first night of the event, we watched a documentary called “I am Alive: Surviving the Andes Plane Crash!” It was about a Uruguayan college rugby team that chartered a flight in 1972 to take them to a match in Chile. It was less expensive than flying the entire team on a commercial airliner. Unbeknownst to the team, the pilots made a wrong turn directly into the Andes Mountains. Unable to see the mountains because of cloud cover, when they descended and broke through the cloud bank only to realize the situation, the underpowered aircraft was unable to increase altitude. The plane hit one of the peaks and the back part of the craft was severed. Miraculously, the front half of the craft slid down the mountain like a toboggan and into a valley.
Government rescuers began their search immediately but, because the plane was white, it was virtually impossible to detect from the sky while in its snowy resting place. Based on all appearances, it looked like certain death because they ended up in an area of freezing temperatures, devoid of plants or animals for food.
As they tried to survive in the days and weeks after the accident, they finally realized they had no choice but to resort to eating the dead bodies. They knew that they would die if they stayed there and, if they attempted to climb up the mountain, they would most likely die as well. Finally, after 62 days, two brave survivors set out to do what was thought to be impossible and managed to reach a lower area ten days later where they got help for their teammates. The survivors were saved.
To me, this story is a testament to the human spirit and the will to survive.
The film was very disturbing and emotional; however, I highly recommend it.
As empowered nurses, like the people in the plane who could not see a way out, we too sometimes feel our situation is hopeless. We seem to have to wait until somebody, despite the odds, finally says, “Let’s do it anyways.” To many of you, you may feel that we can’t change nursing. To others there is a glimmer of high hope and despite a feeling that what has always been this way, develop a feeling of “we can.”
It also was ironic that the survivors ate the dead to stay alive, just like some nurses eat their young. We need to change this. We need to find another way even when all the evidence shows us different reality.
