BRUSSELS – The world came to a halt earlier this week as another city was crippled by a terrorist attack. At least 34 people were killed and over 170 people were wounded in an attack at a subway station and airport in Brussels, Belgium. As the rest of the world watched their television and computer screens in horror, two Alabama women were in the middle of the chaos.
Laura Harper and Laura Billiet were arriving at the Brussels airport when the terrorists made their move. The two women have been friends since they grew up together in Huntsville, Alabama. Harper was in Brussels visiting Billiet, who moved there after falling in love and marring a Belgian man. Billiet’s youngest son was being baptized and Harper is his godmother.
The Alabama natives had just gotten out of their car when they heard a loud explosion. Harper thought it was a military test. “I live close to Redstone Arsenal so in my mind, I thought, ‘What are they testing?’” she told Alabama sports website and liberal political blog AL.com over Skype.
But the aftershock blew out the glass windows and another boom followed shortly after. That’s when Harper and Billiet knew they needed to get out fast. Their car was stuck in the mass of traffic and people trying to unload their baggage at the airport, so they left everything and ran.
They took shelter in a nearby police station and hid with dozens of other terrified people. Victims that were close to the explosions started coming in covered in cuts, burns, and other wounds. That’s when Billiet, a trained physician and internal medicine specialist sprang into action. Even though she had no medical supplies, she did what she could to help the wounded.
“One of the people, a woman from the check-in counter, was carrying a walkie-talkie covered in flesh, and she had multiple shrapnel wounds,” she said. “And we had nothing there, just paper towels. We were triaging people and trying to stem the bleeding.”
Harper, not a physician, also lent a hand where she could. She found two lost girls covered in burns and decided to stay with them and sing them songs until they could find their parents. Harper was also able to act as an interpreter for an injured boy and his mother who only spoke Spanish. Harper was their intermediary with the medical personnel who eventually arrived.
As the chaos in the police station began to calm down, Harper and Billiet decided to walk to Billiet’s brother-in-law’s office a few miles away. Their car, luggage, wallets, and IDs were all stuck behind police barricades.
Harper and Billiet are beyond grateful that they were so lucky and that they were able to help so many others. Harper is hopeful that she will be able to fly back to Madison, Alabama, where she currently lives, sometime today.
