'My family kept me alive'
2008-10-20 22:25
Cape Town - Thinking about his wife and children was all that kept him going while he crawled down the face of a 2000m-high Antarctic mountain in temperatures of -30 °C with a broken leg.
Sigurd Sande, 49, a Norwegian mechanic, was evacuated to the Christiaan Barnard Memorial Hospital by a South African team at the weekend after breaking one of his legs in two places and spraining his ankle.
Sande waited for assistance for 15 days. A gynaecologist at the base had to perform an emergency procedure based on telephonic instructions to prevent the amputation of his foot.
Recovering in hospital on Monday, he said an outing to the top of the mountain and the broken leg had nearly cost him his life.
"I thought about my family. I thought I was going to die."
The friend who was with him refused to answer every time Sande asked whether he was going to die.
It has been eight months since Sande last saw his family after joining the Norwegian base at Antarctica.
"It [working in Antarctica] was a dream come true, but now my wife will never let me go back. But at least I have the memories and the photos," he said.