Woman trapped in car for 6 days during heatwave
She said: "The thought of my children kept me alive."
A woman spent six days trapped in her overturned car during the recent record-breaking heatwave.
Corine Bastide said that the thought of her children kept her alive.
She had veered off a road in Belgium as temperatures soared to their highest level in the country's history.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
Her vehicle rolled over near Liege, a city in the southeast of the country, leaving her stuck inside with a spine injury.
Despite the desperate attempts of relatives to contact her, the pain she was under meant she could not reach her mobile phone.
Outside, the heat broke records across Europe with the mercury reaching 40C in Belgium and France, Germany and Britain all registering the highest temperatures in their recorded history.
How she survived
"The first night, my mobile didn't stop ringing. I tried to answer it but I couldn't because my arm was too sore,” reported a local media.
"The next day the phone was not ringing anymore – I knew I had no battery.
"The most difficult thing was lying on pieces of glass. I tried to hoist myself up but I had the impression that my back was being torn."
As heatwave temperatures soared and Corine Bastide grew increasingly dehydrated, it was ultimately up to nature and some quick-thinking to save her life.
"I also used a wet branch to create the sensation of moisture in my mouth. But I didn't feel hungry."
Temperatures in Belgium reached over 40C (104F) last week, but Corine Bastide survived on rainwater she collected during a weekend storm.
“My children kept me alive”
"I thought so much about my children, and for me, it was important that I do my best to do everything I had planned with my children - it was them who gave me the strength to hold on," she said.
"I wanted to live for my children, I did not want them to think that I had made a mistake, a suicide."
It was only when relatives were putting up missing posters this week that they spotted the vehicle – and her cries for help.
Eventually, a passerby found her, who she calls her 'guardian angel'. "'Corine, is it you?' they asked. They knew my name."
Corine Bastide is currently undergoing surgery in a hospital and is on the road to recovery.
