One of the victims of the 2016 Brussels terror attacks has described in harrowing detail the moment of the bombing of Zaventem Airport, as well as the effect on her own mental and physical health over subsequent months and years.
On Monday, Béatrice De Lavalette — a horseback riding enthusiast who, at 17, tragically lost both of her legs as a result of the bombing — offered the first of roughly 100 victim testimonies during Belgium's biggest ever trial, which is overseeing the prosecution of ten of the alleged perpetrators of the 22 March, 2016 bombings of Zaventem Airport and Maelbeek metro station. The attacks killed 32 people and injured more than 300.
"When the bomb exploded, I have no memory, the only thing I remember is that I took off from the ground, it was darkness," De Lavalette said, adding that she had been planning to fly to the US that day. "When I regained consciousness, I saw my leg at a right angle. I immediately understood what had happened."
"There was a woman whose hair was burning, I tried to put it out with my hands. When she felt that someone was there, she took my hand. Soon after the first responders arrived and began to take injured people," she added.
'Little chance I would survive'
In a further, distressing detail, De Lavalette claimed to recall a colour-coding system being used by the Belgian medical authorities to determine victims' likelihood of survival in the immediate aftermath of the attacks: "I was labelled as red, which means, I understood later, that we thought there was little chance that I would survive."
Nevertheless, De Lavalette offered effusive praise of the airport's first responders, whom she credits with saving her life.
Court drawing by Jonathan De Cesare shows Beatrice de Lavalette during the trial of the terror attacks of March 22, 2016, at the Brussels-Capital Assizes Court, Monday 06 March 2023 at the Justitia site in Haren, Brussels. Credit: Belga / Jonathan De Cesare
"I realised that people were screaming for help, so I did as they did, in French and English," she recounted. "After I saw a firefighter, I raised my hand. He called first aid, and three or four people arrived to help me. These people took care of me with great care."
She then explained how, shortly thereafter, she fell into a month-long coma: "I felt that I wanted to sleep, but someone told me 'you can't sleep'. But soon after I fell into a coma. The first memories after that are the minutes in the hospital when I came out of a coma a month later."
'I thought this was the end of my life'
Despite their best efforts, doctors were forced to amputate both of De Lavalette's legs four months after the attacks. She explained that this procedure required extraordinarily difficult mental and physical adjustments — but that, almost counter-intuitively, her special relationship with her own horse helped her to pull through.
"It required huge mental strength to learn to live differently again," she said. "My mother understood that my horse had to come near me. As soon as I saw my horse, I understood that there was someone waiting for me to get better. Because for me at the age of 17 I already thought that this was the end of my life."
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De Lavalette also explained how, despite summoning the mental fortitude to graduate from school several months after the bombings, numerous physical and mental setbacks still lay ahead of her.
"After a year, I had to return to a normal life, but I wasn't ready yet and I experienced a moment of depression," she said. "In 2019, I spent eight very difficult months during which I underwent nine new operations, after the twenty already suffered after the attacks."
She added that, although she still regularly experiences mood swings, her mental state is currently very good: "At the moment I am on a high."
