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A woman who survived the terror attack at Brussels airport has died after choosing to be euthanized due to severe depression and PTSD she suffered after the incident.
Shanti De Corte, 23, was walking with her classmates through the departure lounge of the Belgian airport in Zaventem on March 22, 2016 for a trip to Italy when Islamic State terrorists detonated a bomb.
The then 17-year-old escaped the explosion, which along with two other blasts claimed 32 lives and injured more than 300, without sustaining physical injuries.
But the psychological effects of the ordeal plagued her with constant panic attacks and bouts of dark depression from which she never got out.
Despite visiting a psychiatric hospital in her hometown of Antwerp for rehabilitation and taking a series of antidepressants, Shanti couldn’t shake the specter of depression and attempted suicide on two separate occasions in 2018 and 2020.
Earlier this year, the troubled young woman chose to be euthanized – a procedure legal in Belgium, and died on May 7, 2022 after two psychiatrists granted her request.
Shanti’s tragic story came to light earlier this week when her mother Marielle told Belgian outlet VRT of her daughter’s pain.
“That day really broke her down, after that she never felt safe again,” Marielle said.
“She didn’t want to go anywhere where other people were out of fear. She also had frequent panic attacks and never got over them.’
Shanti De Corte, 23, has never recovered from psychological trauma after narrowly escaping the terror attacks of March 22, 2016 in Belgium
Shanti De Corte (left) is pictured with a friend in this image shared on a tribute page
Shanti’s tragic story came to light earlier this week when her mother Marielle (photo) told the VRT about her daughter’s pain.
In her latest 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 away in peace. Know that I miss you already’
Shanti regularly recalled her experiences after the social media bombing and spoke of her struggles with her declining mental health.
In a message, she wrote, “I’m getting some meds for breakfast. And up to 11 antidepressants a day. I couldn’t live without it.
“With all the drugs I take, I feel like a ghost that can’t feel anything anymore. Perhaps there were other solutions than medicines.’
According to her school psychologist, the 23-year-old suffered from severe depression before choosing to end her life.
She said RTBF: ‘Some students react worse than others to traumatic events. And after interviewing her twice, I can tell you that Shanti De Corte was one of those vulnerable students.’
Pauline Graystone, who has lived in Belgium for 20 years, was standing with her husband and daughter at the American Airlines check-in counter when the initial explosion shook the departure lounge and was filmed clinging to her husband
The psychologist referred Shanti to a psychiatric hospital in Antwerp, where the young woman visited regularly.
But in 2018, she attempted suicide after a sudden decline in her mental state following an altercation with another patient who had sexually abused her.
In 2020 she made another failed suicide attempt, after which she contacted an organization that stands up for the right to ‘death in dignity’.
According to the RTBF, she asked them to perform euthanasia because of ‘unbearable psychiatric suffering’.
A plume of smoke rises over Brussels airport after the explosion of a third device at Zaventem Bruxelles International Airport during a terrorist attack on March 22, 2016 in Brussels, Belgium
Euthanasia, defined as the practice of intentionally ending a person’s life to relieve pain and suffering, is legal in Belgium for a person who is in ‘a medically meaningless state of constant and intolerable physical or mental suffering that cannot be relieved, as a result of a serious and incurable condition caused by illness or accident’.
Shanti’s formal request to be euthanized was approved by two psychiatrists earlier this year, RTBF said.
“The woman was euthanized on May 7, 2022, surrounded by her family,” the report said.
In a final touching social media post on the day she was euthanized, Shanti wrote: “I laughed and cried. Until the last day. I loved and was allowed to feel what true love is.
‘Now I go away in peace. Know I miss you already.’
However, the case may not have been closed yet, as Antwerp prosecutors launched an investigation after receiving complaints from a neurologist at the University Hospital Brugman University Hospital in Brussels, who said the decision to euthanize Shanti was “premature”.
The Federal Commission for the Control and Evaluation of Euthanasia in Belgium was not concerned about the case, but neurologist Paul Deltenre argued that, according to the RTBF, there were still several modalities of care and treatment available for Shanti that were not tried.