A young woman from Belgium couldn’t find a way to cope with her panic attacks after a close-call with an ISIS terrorist attack.
Shanti De Corte, a 23-year-old woman and a survivor of the March 22, 2016, Brussels Airport ISIS terrorist attack, chose to end her life and was euthanized this past May.
Shanti was 17-years-old at the time of the attack. She was walking through the airport on her way to a flight to Italy with classmates, when two explosions shook the airport. A coordinated suicide bombing rocked the airport at the same time as the Maalbeek Brussels metro station in Brussels. Three out of four bombs were detonated, killing 32 people and injuring more than 300. Shanti escaped the attack without physical harm, but she would never be the same.
Panic attacks and depression smothered Shanti following that tragic day. The sights and sounds of the attack brought on PTSD and deep, dark episodes of despair. Her school psychologist referred her to a psychiatric rehabilitation facility in her hometown of Antwerp.
Shanti regularly attended sessions at the hospital, but her condition wasn’t improving.
She began to share candid thoughts about her despair on social media. In one post, she told her followers, “I get a few medications for breakfast. And up to 11 antidepressants a day. I couldn’t live without it. With all the medications I take, I feel like a ghost that can’t feel anything anymore. Maybe there were other solutions than medications.”
The panic attacks and depression continued, and she attempted suicide, once in 2018 and again in 2020. In early 2022, Shanti decided that her life wasn’t worth living any longer and chose to be euthanized, a procedure that is legal in Belgium. Her condition and behavior were enough to convince two psychiatrists to approve the lethal process, and she took her final breath on May 7.
Shanti’s mom Marielle recently brought her daughter’s story to the attention of the media when she shared her thoughts with a Belgian media outlet. “That day really cracked her, she never felt safe after that. She didn’t want to go anywhere where other people were, out of fear. She also had frequent panic attacks and she never got rid of it.”
Only three countries in Europe approve of euthanasia: Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.
