Tragedy in Belgium: 4-Year-Old Dies After Choking in School Gymnastics Class

"Just two days before her death, we were joyfully celebrating at home. Sidra was laughing. She was happy. She was eating with a good appetite. There was a cake. There were gifts. She had just turned four. Less than 48 hours later, we lost her. We are devastated. Our child is gone and will never come back. It will always be difficult," said the parents of Sidra, who died on April 2 at the Antwerp hospital after being seriously injured during a gymnastics class at her school. The little girl was buried in Morocco, the country of origin of her parents.

Her mother, Dounia, 29, and her father, Mohammed, 46, are devastated. "Our life stopped since that phone call" received on Friday, March 29, confides Sidra’s father. "I was in the car. My wife was at the market in Antwerp. On the phone, I heard: ’You have to come quickly, your daughter has fallen’." [...] I drove to the school and crossed a police car. That’s when I knew something was wrong." Mohammed cannot erase the image of his dying daughter in the hospital from his memory. "She didn’t respond. Her heart was apparently still beating, but I didn’t see any breathing. The doctors said Sidra was brain dead."

The girl’s father is convinced that "it did not happen at the hospital, but since the school." He is awaiting the results of the judicial investigation opened on the incident in the gymnasium that cost his daughter’s life. "Already a month and we still don’t know any more," laments Sidra’s inconsolable mother. She recounts having seen her daughter in a coma, on artificial respiration, and having remained at her bedside until her death. "I spent five days by her side. I didn’t want to leave her for a single second." But her hopes were extinguished after the results of the brain scan. "At one point, the doctor said: ’She may die today or tomorrow.’ Our daughter finally died around 6:30 pm on Tuesday, April 2."

Mohammed and Dounia’s life has been turned upside down since Sidra’s departure. "A part of me died with her. I no longer sleep and I have to take medication for that. I never smoked, now I do. I never drank, now I do. When I see a child passing by outside, I think it’s Sidra. I think I see her everywhere. Honestly, my life is broken," confesses Mohammed. Dounia, for her part, is looking for answers to her questions. "How did she get stuck in this device? Who got her out of it? How could it have lasted five minutes? We just don’t understand. And we haven’t received any answers."

But life must resume its course for Sidra’s parents, who have another child aged six. The Antwerp public prosecutor’s office has confirmed that the investigation for "involuntary manslaughter" is ongoing. For his part, the director of the Sint-Martinus school in Burcht, Wim Van Ranst, sympathizes with Sidra’s family. "I would like to free these people from their uncertainty, but we have been asked to be patient and wait for the results of the investigation. It breaks our hearts not to be able to do more."