“The Society of the Snow”: Shocking Medical Details

Spanish film director Juan Antonio Bayona delivered to the screen a story as real because it is chilling. And he did it with such faithfulness to detail it’s not possible to not admire The Society of the Snow for its accuracy in recounting the health problems that the protagonists went through.

The book with the identical name because the film (La sociedad de la nieve in Spanish), written by Pablo Vierci in 2009, served as an authoritative foundation. There’s also data from I Needed to Survive, one other 2016 book by the identical creator, which incorporates the first-person testimony of Roberto Canessa, considered one of the survivors.

The plane crash occurred in October 1972, in the world often known as Valle de las Lágrimas (Valley of Tears), between Chile and Argentina. There have been 45 people on the plane, 33 alive after the aircraft crashed, and only 16 who were in a position to get out of the Cordillera, greater than two months after being isolated. What health challenges did they overcome?

Frostbite

Among the many recreation details that The Society of the snow carries out, the Andean environment is one of the crucial striking. Along with having filmed some scenes within the Valley of Tears itself, Bayona made use of assorted artifices to convey the acute cold of the region.

Although the Uruguayans suffered the accident in spring, the altitude and the presence of snow could bring the temperature right down to 14 or -4 degrees Fahrenheit. This, in fact, creates plenty of problems for the human body. For instance, the survivors within the Andes suffered skin burns as a consequence of cold.

They’re lesions that appear when tissues freeze, especially on exposed extremities, equivalent to fingers, nose, ears, and feet. In keeping with information from a scientific publication within the Journal of Thermal Biology, the essential problem is that freezing temperatures damage blood vessels and ice crystals form between cells.

Frostbite will be superficial, with numbness, reddening of the skin, and blisters. But it may also evolve to a deep and complete form, reaching muscles and bones, with subsequent necrosis and the necessity for amputation.

Pressure ulcers

Bayona’s film shows, in some characters, ulcers and bedsores on different parts of the body. Sometimes, they’re noticeable on the backs of those that had to stay lying down for an extended time period.

Also often known as decubitus or pressure ulcers, they’re very frequent in hospitalized patients and constitute a risk for infections. On the whole, they seem in anatomical areas where soft tissues are in close contact with the hard surfaces of bones.

There’s prolonged pressure that compresses the blood vessels, and, in consequence, a reduced flow of blood and oxygen to the skin. Then, when you add other aspects, equivalent to cold or friction from improper movement, the bedsore becomes more significant.

For the survivors of the Andes, perhaps the most important challenge was to achieve healing. Poor hygienic conditions, with the added factor of freezing cold temperatures, would make it difficult for the healing of the ulcers to happen.

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Raccoon eyes in The Society of the Snow

One image from the movie that went viral was of the actor portraying Fernando Parrado after waking up from being unconscious, with black eyelids and dark circles under his eyes. That is considered one of the small print of The Society of the Snow that reveals the degree of precision that Bayona followed when directing.

What happened in point of fact is that Parrado was immediately comatose after the accident. His companions took him for dead, so that they didn’t move him from where he was. On the third day, Fernando opened his eyes and recovered.

Those black circles under his eyes are often known as raccoon eyes. Their appearance is said to a fracture at the bottom of the skull. In other words, a particularly serious situation.

Now, what was it that saved Parrado? Possibly it was the cold and the incontrovertible fact that he was considered dead. The others kept him immobile by not paying an excessive amount of attention to him, and the hypothermia helped to cut back the swelling within the brain.

After just a few days, his internal hemorrhage was contained, the injury didn’t progress, and he woke up. His recovery is so amazing that a scientific article was published in the distinguished journal The Lancet to elucidate it.

As well as, Parrado is considered one of two (together with Canessa) who managed to finish the expedition to hunt help. Finally, due to his feat, the entire group is rescued.

Dehydration in The Society of the Snow

To try and stay hydrated, the survivors had the choice to melt the encircling snow. And while this method is used even in sport mountaineering, it’s value noting that it doesn’t provide a considerable amount of water by volume and that there’s no certainty about its microbiological conditions.

The choice of “eating snow” also involves certain complications. In point of fact, it means introducing a substance at a low temperature into the digestive system, which alters the body’s thermal regulation.

In keeping with information from research conducted with mountaineers who devour glacial water on their expeditions, we all know that they fail to satisfy their electrolyte requirements with this source. Due to this fact, besides water loss, there’s a sodium and potassium deficiency that could possibly be lethal.

When a person is dehydrated, blood flow and the center’s ability to pump blood efficiently are affected. The initial symptoms of dehydration are as follows:

• Fatigue
• Dizziness
• Headache
• Dry mouth
• Dark coloured urine

Severe and prolonged dehydration results in kidney failure, brain damage, and cardiovascular shock.

Malnutrition among the many survivors

The food supplies on the Uruguayan Air Force plane weren’t plentiful. The trip was planned for less than just a few hours, and the crew members were only carrying a minimal amount of food.

Marcelo Pérez del Castillo was the captain of the rugby team and, to start with, was answerable for rationing the provisions to be able to survive. Nevertheless, the avalanche that buried the fuselage on October twenty ninth ended his life.

One among the small print formed by the circumstances in The Society of the Snow is that the stranded passengers had no way of knowing what number of days they might be within the Valley of Tears. They may only ration in line with estimates, as nothing was certain.

The human body goes through different stages in its malnutrition process:

• Day one: The body begins to make use of reserve glycogen. This involves fluid loss, because the molecule is stored with water. Because the glucose source is consumed, it should switch to the usage of fats for energy.
• First week: The body enters a state of ketosis. It runs on fat and turns to other tissues to metabolize, equivalent to muscle, thus starting down the trail of sarcopenia. There’s a decrease in appetite as a mirrored image of energy savings.
• First month: Insulin levels decrease, and growth hormone increases. Protein breakdown is elevated, and muscle tissue shows signs of destruction. Micronutrient deficiency affects enzyme activities, making cells less efficient of their work.

Some details of The Society of the Snow that denote the issue of malnutrition are in the ultimate weight of the corpses of those that died within the last weeks. On the sixtieth day after the accident, Numa Turcatti died with a body mass of only 55 kilos.

Wasn’t anthropophagy enough to avoid malnutrition?

Through listening to radio communications, the survivors of the Andes learned on the tenth day of the accident that their official search was suspended. At the identical time, they noticed that they now not had enough food to face up to the cold and the environmental conditions.

That is how the choice of anthropophagy appeared. Eating the flesh of their deceased companions, preserved by the cold of the snow, was the solution to acquire protein. In fact, it wasn’t a simple decision.

Some were in a position to eat this manner, although reluctantly. Others couldn’t stand it and threw up what they ingested.

The purpose is that anthropophagy could also be useful for a short while, but it surely doesn’t cover long-term dietary requirements. In keeping with an evaluation within the journal Social Evolution and History, cannibalism has presented serious deficiencies in human history with regards to sustaining and supporting the correct functioning of physiology.

Bloody gums from scurvy

Insufficient nutrition often means a noticeable vitamin C deficiency. When that happens, a disease often known as scurvy appears.

In the course of the history of world shipping, for instance, scurvy was a typical problem among the many crew of ships that spent long periods at sea, especially across the fifteenth century. Lack of access to fresh food was the trigger.

A few of the rugby players had symptoms which are compatible with this disorder. Perhaps probably the most obvious was bleeding gums. Gingival bleeding is considered one of the oral signs of vitamin C deficiency.

This vitamin, which is ascorbic acid, is important for the synthesis of collagen, a structural protein within the body. The dearth of collagen within the partitions of blood vessels makes them more fragile and vulnerable to rupture.

Other symptoms of scurvy include the next:

• Fatigue and weakness
• Muscle and joint pain
• Bruising of the skin.

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Cramps and stiffness

One other consequence of malnutrition is the shortage of sufficient calcium within the cells for basic tissue processes to happen. Within the case of muscles, this may be contraction and leisure.

In contexts of hypocalcemia, muscle fibers don’t properly complete their cycle to take care of muscle tone. Due to this fact, contractions could also be generated that don’t pass to the relief phase, with the ensuing sensation of stiffness and the lack to maneuver.

Extreme cases evolve into tetanus and even convulsions. On account of a scarcity of calcium, laryngospasm may additionally occur, which sometimes proves fatal.

Among the many circumstances in The Society of the Snow that helped result in the joint decision to resort to anthropophagy is the seek for calcium. Those that knew they were affected by cramps as a consequence of hypocalcemia tried to carve the bones of the victims and ingest the powder to be able to incorporate the mineral that way.

Several fractures

Arturo Nogueira fractured his lower limbs on impact. Antonio Vizintín fractured two ribs. Álvaro Mangino also suffered a broken tibia in a single leg.

In a scene from The Society of the Snow, we see how Roberto Canessa aligns Álvaro’s fracture with a jerk movement. Then, with cloths, he immobilizes the limb same limb. Seventy-two days later, Mangino is in a position to get on the rescue helicopter walking, because the callus has already formed on the bone he had broken.

Imagining the issues related to these fractures within the hostile environment of the Valley of Tears is incredible. The possibilities of bone infection were very high, along with the immediate consequences of hemorrhage and inflammation.

An “advantage” on this journey was the presence of two medical students among the many rugby players. Their wisdom and expertise made it possible, to a big extent, for there to be survivors.

As for the fractures themselves, it’s necessary to remember that the physical condition of the players was superior to that of an individual with no training or only basic physical activity. This might have contributed to a greater recovery from the injuries.

The mystery behind the black urine

One other viral scene that focuses on the small print of The Society of the Snow is the one through which black urine appears. It was a moment that caught the eye of viewers and led to plenty of hypotheses.

The probably scenario is that the survivors were affected by rhabdomyolysis. As we explained when talking about malnutrition, the body starts to make use of muscle tissue to acquire protein and generate energy.

The issue is that the surplus use of muscle protein generates a waste product that the kidneys should eliminate. That metabolic waste is myoglobin, a substance that damages the renal filter by passing through it in large quantities.

If dehydration, which tends to pay attention urine to save lots of fluids, is added to myoglobin, the result’s a darkening of the liquid we expel.

The small print in The Society of the Snow are incredible and speak of resilience

This amazing Netflix film will proceed to be talked about. It was nominated for an Oscar, won 13 Goya 2024 awards, and is the most-watched non-English speaking film on the streaming platform.

The story of the survivors of the Andes exceeds any capability for wonder. From the young man who comes out of a coma and walks miles through the snow to search out help to the medical student who treats a fracture within the broken fuselage of an airplane, all of the minute details come together to form considered one of the best narratives of human capability.

Each Bayona’s latest film and his previous 1993 film Alive!, in addition to the testimonial books, are gateways to resilience in its most extreme form. It’s a story that transcends the ages and inspires us to face adversity.