The mother of the Belgian woman who chose to be euthanized after Islamic State’s botched terror attack at Brussels airport has revealed she supported her daughter’s decision because she could not live with the trauma – even as a neurologist has suggested there were others ways in which the 23-year-old could have been helped.
Shanti De Corte suffered from depression and PTSD after ISIS goons detonated a bomb at Brussels airport in Zaventem, killing 32 people and injuring more than 300 in March 2016.
The then 17-year-old escaped the explosion but suffered constant panic attacks – and despite going to a psychiatric hospital in Antwerp for rehabilitation and taking a series of antidepressants, she was unable to shake the specter of depression and suicide attempts. on two different occasions in 2018 and 2020.
Miss De Corte died on May 7 this year after two psychiatrists approved her request to be euthanized, her mother Marielle revealed.
Paul Deltenre, a neurologist from the CHU Brugmann academic clinical hospital in Brussels, appears to have intervened in the case to prevent the 23-year-old from being allowed to commit suicide, suggesting that euthanasia should not have been found place because other proposals for care had been made and claimed the decision ‘was made prematurely’.
However, it seems that he was rejected when Miss De Corte’s mother supported her daughter’s choice, according to the news media 7Sur7.
The public prosecutor’s office in Antwerp opened an investigation, but then closed the case, concluding that the procedure for euthanasia had been respected.
Shanti De Corte never recovered from the psychological trauma after narrowly escaping the Brussels airport attack in 2016
Shanti De Corte (left) is pictured with a friend in this photo shared on a tribute page
The 23-year-old’s mother Marielle described how she supported her daughter’s choice, telling Belgian magazine VRT: ‘I told her that I didn’t want to lose her, but that somehow I understood her question. Then she clicked that she wanted to say goodbye to her family and friends and didn’t just want to get out of life’
In her final tragic but touching post on social media, Shanti wrote: ‘I laughed and cried. Until the last day. I loved and was allowed to feel what true love is. ‘Now I go in peace. Knowing that I miss you already’
A plume of smoke rises over Brussels airport after the explosion of a third device at Zaventem Brussels International Airport
The 23-year-old’s mother said so Belgian outlet VRT: ‘I told her that I didn’t want to lose her, but that somehow I understood her question. Then she made the decision that she wanted to say goodbye to her family and friends and didn’t just want to get out of life.
“Something like this is really very difficult, but at that moment it’s the only thing you can do for your child as a mother. Be there for her and try to support her.
‘Somehow you keep hoping that it will be even better that she didn’t want to do it, but at the same time I felt from the beginning that this was really what she wanted, I realized that the way Shanti has had to live in recent years is to survive, that it was not an option to continue like this to live.’
Miss De Corte often reminisced about her experiences after the bombing on social media and spoke of her struggles to deal with her declining mental health.
In one post, she wrote: ‘I’ll have a few medicines for breakfast. And up to 11 antidepressants a day. I couldn’t live without it. With all the medicine I take, I feel like a ghost who can’t feel anything anymore. Maybe there were other solutions than medicine’.
The 23-year-old had suffered from severe depression before she chose to end her life, according to her school psychologist.
She told RTBF: ‘There are some students who react worse than others to traumatic events. And after interviewing her twice, I can tell you that Shanti De Corte was one of those fragile students.’
The psychologist referred Shanti to a psychiatric hospital in Antwerp, which the young woman regularly visited. But in 2018, she attempted suicide after a sudden decline in her mental state following an argument with another patient who sexually assaulted her.
In 2020, she made another unsuccessful suicide attempt, after which she reached out to an organization that defends the right to ‘death with dignity’.
According to the RTBF, she asked them to perform euthanasia for ‘excruciating psychiatric disorders’.
The picture: People inside Zaventem Airport after an explosion in March 2016
Passengers were evacuated from the airport after the terrorist attack in March 2016
Police and soldiers check Brussels airport at its entrance after the attacks
Euthanasia, defined as the practice of deliberately ending a person’s life to relieve pain and suffering, is legal in Belgium for a person who is in ‘a medically futile state of constant and unbearable physical or mental suffering which cannot be alleviated, who as a result of a serious and incurable disorder caused by illness or accident’.
Miss De Corte’s formal request to be euthanized was approved earlier this year by two psychiatrists, according to RTBF.
“The woman was euthanized on May 7, 2022, surrounded by her family,” the report said.
In a final touching post on social media on the day she was euthanised, Miss De Corte wrote: ‘I laughed and cried. Until the last day. I loved and was allowed to feel what true love is. Now I go in peace. Know that I already miss you.’