Sidra (4) from Burcht died in hospital after an accident during gymnastics lessons: “It is not yet clear exactly how this happened” (Zwijndrecht)

Things didn’t look good for little Sidra for a long time. After previously being in a coma in intensive care, she had to undergo an urgent brain scan on Easter Monday. This showed that there was brain damage. But after five days in intensive care at the UZA in Edegem, Sidra Atmane (4) died in hospital on Tuesday.

“Unfortunate move”

The incident happened on Friday morning around 11 am in the gymnasium of the Sint-Martinus school in Burcht, a village in Zwijndrecht in Antwerp. With the activity ‘Travel around the world’, the toddlers in her class were allowed to climb and play on all kinds of gymnastics equipment. What exactly went wrong afterwards is still unclear. The fact is that the girl got her head stuck between the bars of a climbing frame.

“What we know is that Sidra climbed onto the climbing frame at one point,” the parents said on Tuesday. “She probably put her head between the bars of the rack and they tell us that she suffocated. When the gymnastics teacher saw this, her eyes were apparently already closed and her tongue was sticking out. We don’t even know how he freed her. We weren’t told that. But he started resuscitation, and afterwards the ambulances took over. They had to resuscitate her for 45 minutes.”

According to the Antwerp public prosecutor’s office, the girl became stuck in a gymnastics equipment, resulting in a lack of oxygen. The school speaks of an “unfortunate move”. Perhaps Sidra suffered from shortness of breath and a heart attack afterwards. For the first resuscitation, the gymnastics teacher used the AED device, which was hanging right next to the sports hall. Shortly after noon, the girl arrived by ambulance at the emergency room at the UZA in Edegem. Her condition was life-threatening.

Many questions

For a moment there was some hope for the family: on Sunday Sidra’s heart had stabilized for a while. But on Monday night it started beating faster again and her blood pressure also rose. “Zee also had two epileptic seizures in recent days, even though she has no history of this at all. Sidra was always a very healthy and cheerful child,” said the mother.

The parents are mainly left with many questions. “How could this happen? Where were the other teachers? Couldn’t action have been taken earlier? And in addition to the sadness, we are also angry.”

School devastated

The Sint-Martinus school in Burcht is reacting very emotionally to Sidra’s death. “This has hit us very hard,” says Geert De Corte, general director of the Catholic Schools on the Scheldt school group. “All teachers are still in the teacher’s room at school and we are trying to process it together.”

From Wednesday, social and psychological help will be provided for students and teachers. “We have informed all parents in the class by telephone and some parents have already said that their child could best be assisted. This is clearly a blow to everyone.”

The school is now waiting for the results of the medical examiner’s examination. “We have yet to learn the cause of death,” says De Corte. “Because there are still a lot of questions about that. It is not yet clear how exactly this happened.”