When Katie Healy got caught up in the Paris terrorist attack, she thought it was the end. Astonishingly, she lived – and is using her experience to help other victims – writes Eimear Moriarty
For Katie Healy, the beauty blogger behind What Katie Healy Did, the day that changed her life was one that, tragically, killed 89 people and indisputably altered the lives of many, many others.
Katie, 28, from Louth and her fiancée David, 32, from Millstreet, Co Cork, were in the Bataclan theatre on November 13, 2015, the night three gunmen conducted a mass shooting, as part of a series of coordinated ISIL terrorist attacks across the French capital.It was the couple’s first holiday together, and David surprised Katie with the short trip to Paris for her 28th birthday, where he was secretly planning to propose…
The concert hall was crammed with more than 1,000 people, who had come to see a sold-out show by the American rock band Eagles of Death Metal. But, shortly after 10pm, as people danced and sang, a gunman came in and shouted ‘Allahu Akbar,’ then started firing indiscriminately into the crowd. Suddenly people were falling all over the place, screaming, clawing and running and pushing to get away. It was chaos.
The couple soon realised the gravity of the situation and their instinctive survivor’s mode set in. David threw himself on top of Katie, to protect her from the crazed terrorist and was shot in the leg as the terrified couple played dead in a desperate bid to survive.
“I’m lucky to have survived, people think I’m a very emotional and flustered kind of person. In a situation like that, you are lying on the floor, covered in blood and gunmen are shooting indiscriminately, literally bullets everywhere, you have to almost make peace with it.”
Katie recalls the harrowing scenes of the Bataclan that night. She remained helpless to those around her, as she lay on the ground for fear of her life, and she witnessed those who danced around her minutes before now fight for their lives;
“There was a man to my left who had been shot in the chest and in the throat and he was choking on his own blood, I tried to keep eye contact with him so that the last thing he could see was my face. To my right was a girl who has just blown apart, it was hard to believe it was a human.”
The young couple said their goodbyes as gunmen began circling the venue, executing innocents who showed any sign of life one-by-one. They waited silently for their turn but as one of the assassins walked less than a foot away, a door miraculously opened and David whispered to Katie to run for her life.
David managed to get shot in the leg in the panic that ensued and would have to undergo major surgery. Katie, however, understands the importance of staying strong for the both of them, as initially they struggled with the normality of returning home to Ireland, without any survivor network or system in place.
They found the lack of counsellors in this country who are equipped to talk about terrorism quite surprising, especially based on our very recent history of violence on both sides of the border.What has been useful for the couple is the contact they have had with other survivors and those whose acts of kindness helped the couple survive the faithful day, although the terror of the attack still resonates with Katie;
“It’s six months on and I thought by this stage you would be kind of be used to it, I don’t think we will ever be. It’s the little things I will never ever forget if a door slams I am terrified. Life isn’t normal anymore, there’s is no normal and you have to make you peace with that. The recent attacks at the gay nightclub in Orlando brought it all back to me….”
Instead of wallowing in self-pity, Katie’s believes they were given a chance to survive so they plan on embracing it. She feels a complete lack of anger over the events and those responsible.
“What happened that night had nothing to do with religion, they weren’t pushing an ideology, they were just three young men who had guns, no direction in life, and no purpose or hope. It’s a constant circle of hatred and destruction and so unnecessary and I’m not letting my life be destroyed by that”.
Katie now wants to use her voice and platform to make those in Government aware of the lack of support system for other survivors of such events and how isolating and frustrating it can be. The inspirational blogger plans to take each day at a time, pushing herself little by little, and to look forward to a future with David, one that she never thought possible only six months ago. Making a life after death in Paris…