48 Hours - Live to Tell: The Long Road Home
Episode Date: September 2, 2018"48 Hours" Presents: A father and basketball star is caught in a terror attack. Sebastien Bellin shares his remarkable story of recovery with CBS News correspondent Vladimir Duthiers.See... Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee
when she received a call from California.
Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing.
The young wife of a Marine
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48 Hours presents Just then, something rippled the surface of the black water.
See that? My brother whispered.
Something really big is out there, I squealed.
My dad's face became very serious.
Maybe he was even a little scared himself.
What if it comes after us?
You want to grow up experiencing those things that dads do.
You just can't picture not being part of their life.
You know, you can't picture not Being there for them
Cecilia monsters are very real. Oh, they are not then it's our monsters real. Yeah. No, are you sure?
Our monsters real
Are you sure Are you sure?
Are you sure?
Not many people get to pinpoint that specific point in their life when, you know, your life changed.
I'm thinking, I gotta make it.
I gotta make it, I gotta make it, I gotta make it.
I gotta see my daughters again.
I gotta see my girls.
The whole time, you're just, you're fixated on that one thing,
and you don't want to let any negative thoughts into your mind at all.
You're about to die.
I can remember just fixating on a point in the ceiling and just being like, okay, no, they're not going to get me.
They're not going to get me.
The power of an explosion, it just shatters everything.
It not only broke my bones, but it exploded my muscle tissues around my bones.
You have life kind of like...
pulled a rug right from under you.
I knew that I had an advantage during the attack.
I played 15 years professional.
Any athlete has to push their limits.
There were lots of things that took place that happened for him to make it.
If you take one of those away, I don't know if he would have survived.
At that time, I didn't really care whether I had legs or not.
I just was going to be alive.
I was going to be able to see Sarah, Cecilia, and Vanessa again. And so that became my motivation really throughout It was my into legal royalty.
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I mean, to think I was 30 yards away from a blast.
And life said, it's not your time yet.
For what reason, I don't know.
But I was truly, truly lucky. I had no fear.
I was, you know, never been scared of flying.
I've never thought twice about being in certain areas.
You know, traveling is such a second nature for me.
Sebastian Bellen has spent much of his life on planes.
Born in Brazil to Belgian parents,
his father's job as an
international businessman took him all over the world, including here in the States,
where he played college basketball. Basketball became kind of my sport because I didn't stop
growing. I think I had a lot of friends like, dude, you can't play soccer. You know what I
mean? You're 6'9", you can't play soccer. First, he played at Marist
College in New York and then transferred to Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan,
where he met his wife, Sarah. After marrying, they relocated to Europe,
where Sebastian continued his basketball career playing professionally.
to Europe, where Sebastian continued his basketball career playing professionally.
He was a spirited guy.
Just ask for the ball.
Come on, guys, we can do this.
When you're hot, you're hot.
Really emotional and passionate, wanting to win and wanting to win as a team.
So we were living the good life.
I mean, it was fun.
And then little Cecilia came along in 2008.
You're going to have a little sister to take care of.
And in 2012, Vanessa came along.
You come home to your daughters, the basketball side, everything that's been your focus changes.
That's what matters.
So after a long 15-year career, Sebastian retired.
He moved his family to Sarah's hometown of Battle Creek, Michigan,
and became a partner in a sports streaming startup,
a job that required travel between Europe and the United States.
I can do that.
No, you can't. You're going to do that.
You know, I was traveling probably two weeks out of every month. I was on the road.
When Sebastian started traveling and taking airplanes a lot, I didn't love it.
But I don't love flying since what's happened with 9-11.
It's kind of spooked me.
And then I also would push it out and be like, Sarah, let's be realistic.
What's the likelihood of something happening?
Sebastian flew out.
It was the 6th of March.
It was a Sunday because I remember that I was baking a cake with the girls for my sister's birthday.
Looking back at those photos, I would get teary-eyed because, for one, I knew that was the day that he left.
And it was carrot cake that we were making, and he loves carrot cake.
Sebastian was heading to Brussels on yet another business trip
But this time, he was traveling during an especially dangerous period
Four months earlier, terrorists killed 130 people
And wounded more than 350 in the worst terrorist attack in Paris history
The atmosphere in Brussels was tense.
Because they had found that a lot of these terrorist attacks in Paris
were coordinated and originated from one of the suburbs of Brussels.
Just days before Sebastian was to fly home,
two of the terrorists involved in the Paris
attacks were arrested in the outskirts of Brussels.
So I really feel that the days leading up to March 22nd, I started getting gut feelings.
You're not safe. I remember being at a restaurant with my good friends
and there was a lot of talk about
what are the consequences of these arrests
and the restaurant had huge glass windows
overlooking the street
and I remember thinking
if terrorists decide to go down this street
and start shooting up with this restaurant,
I mean, there's no way to hide.
The last time I spoke with him was via text,
and he was just heading to bed.
It was already really late there.
Sebastian was flying home.
And then we were spending the long weekend,
the Easter weekend, together as a family.
I get dropped off by one of my colleagues at the airport. A lot of flights go in and out,
very open, you know, very easy. You can park right in front of the airport.
I remember seeing the clock on the car, 745. And I immediately go check in.
And my flight was like at 910 or something like that.
So not a lot of time to check in.
So I run to the check-in counter, get my boarding pass.
I was one of the last ones to check in.
While Sebastian was checking in, at 755, three members of an ISIS cell
with ties to the Paris attacks were entering the airport.
Each one pushing luggage containing a bomb.
There's not a worry on my mind.
Everything's right.
And then in a span of three minutes.
My life changes.
I see the blast and I felt the blast,
but I didn't get hit. I escaped it.
I remember looking back and seeing the tunnel from where the blast went off just collapsing and I started hearing screams
and I immediately knew that that a bomb went off then I immediately start running you want to run
towards a gate where there's policemen with guns. Don't run outside.
Don't run because you don't know where the second bomb will come from.
If there's a second bomb, you don't know anything.
So in a split of a second, I had to decide, do I run outside or do I run towards the gates?
And I ran towards the gates.
When death is right in front of you, you get a lot of clarity.
When death is right in front of you, you get a lot of clarity.
Because the things that flash in front of you are all the things that you would regret if you died at that moment.
And I remember running faster than some people.
I'm like, you know, dodging people, trying to get by them.
I think I had made it.
You know, I think I had escaped something.
But then, yeah, the second one caught me. Stay long. Stay long.
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When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it,
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The violence of an explosion just rocks you.
It projects you forward.
For two or three seconds, you don't know what hits you.
All I know is I was coming to my senses.
I'm leaning on one side, and I knew I needed help.
So I start, you know, I tried crawling,
but crawling is so inefficient because there's so much debris around you.
So I start waving my hands and screaming
to try to get attention.
And a minute or two later, luck has it, I just feel a tug
on my arm and somebody starts pulling me. And my first instinct was if they start pulling you,
your left leg's not going to come with you. So I'm reaching down, holding on to my left leg,
holding on to my left leg and he drags me I would say 10 20 yards to behind the column and I look down at my hip you know I just have bone and flesh sticking
out from just underneath my belt so then I start seeing about my legs and I could
just see the pools of blood already you know around both legs I'm just so
focused on the instinct of survival,
so I didn't realize there was a photographer there
taking my picture.
I saw many passengers with their legs blown up.
The photographer was Kada Van Cordova,
a foreign correspondent for the Eurasian country Georgia.
I'm standing in front of the Brussels Airlines ticket office. It's me.
She had been checking in for her flight when the bombings occurred.
I took only 12 pictures, and I had only one minute.
So 12 pictures in a minute.
I call them my photo heroes.
It was very terrible to realize what has happened.
There was a dead woman right next to me and she was like all white
I remember a wedding ring
like looking at her hand
and I remember a wedding ring
and suddenly I started thinking of my girls
and Sarah
and I said if you stay here
with all the blood with your sweating
you're going to die.
In the morning, I'd always go to his account, you know,
to see what he sent.
He'd always send really nice messages and things,
and I got nothing.
I know from basketball and from injuries,
the more your feet are elevated, you know, the less blood will flow into them.
So I saw a gray suitcase, and I asked for somebody to bring me over that gray suitcase.
The pain you feel of actually someone lifting your almost attached legs onto a suitcase is excruciating.
And then to my right, I remember seeing a scarf as well lying on the ground. So I
asked someone to bring over the scarf and to use it as a tourniquet around my right leg. I could
see also how much blood I was losing. And so it immediately whipped me into shape saying,
you need to get out of here. So I look around and I saw a luggage cart. And so I told someone to bring over the baggage cart and they lifted me up onto the cart.
That was the second time I really felt excruciating pain.
And so I asked somebody to push me to the front of the airport.
I said, look, I got to get an ambulance.
And they were all like, no, no, you got to stay here.
You cannot move.
You have to stay here.
We have to secure the airport.
But I started saying, if I stay here and I die, it's on your conscience. This is on you.
And finally, you know, they pushed me to the front of the airport. And I remember the push
about a few seconds later, but firemen come around the corner and they pick up. I remember
them trying to push me through the rubble and they couldn't do it. So they just picked me up, and they carried me outside.
Two terrorists had died when their bombs went off.
A third bomb never exploded.
And the terrorist carrying that one, the man in the hat, was on the run.
It had been nearly two hours since Seb was hit by a bomb.
He had lost 50% of his blood.
Finally, he was on his way to the hospital.
They asked me for a phone number.
And, you know, that's actually the first time I panicked.
I couldn't remember a phone number.
And so I was like, how am I going to get Sarah the news?
How am I going to get my girls the news that I'm alive, that I made it? And I gave my in-laws landline,
which is a number that I've memorized for 18 years. I was like, please answer the phone.
I got a phone call from my mom. I didn't realize at the moment how major, how big the terrorist attack was.
It was all about Sebastian at that point.
Okay, well, he's hurt, so how hurt is he?
By now, Kutivan, seen here at the airport, started posting about the attack on social media.
And first photo I posted, it was a photo of Sebastian.
For me, it was most important to show everyone, as many say, the face of terrorism.
And I immediately went to Facebook, because that's where the news is, quickly, and I saw
the photo of Sebastian, you know, lying on the ground.
And I remember I was screaming with terror, you know, because he was down on the ground.
And just thinking about he could have died or is there still a chance that he could die?
I mean, there was all these, so many things going through my mind at that point.
The whole purpose was just to get out alive.
So you start telling yourself,
well, if I lose my left leg, I'm okay.
And then they put me under the sleep,
and I don't remember anything after that. In my mind, it was the worst-case scenario.
Two hours after the bombings,
Sebastian Bellin finally made it into the operating room of Dr. Dimitrios Koulalis.
When you have patients coming out of an explosion, you cannot always find immediately the injury.
So you're always afraid that there's something that you missed.
Sebastian's right hip and left leg were shattered.
Shrapnel from the explosion ripped through his leg,
leaving muscle and bone exposed.
This is the fracture of his left leg, of the left tibia.
You can see it's multifragmented, many fragments.
All these are pieces of bone, and the fibula was broken as well.
Dr. Koulalis and his team spent four hours stabilizing the fractures with a brace,
controlling the bleeding, and removing the shrapnel,
all the while knowing more surgeries would be needed.
I woke up from surgery.
You're so tired, you're so drained emotionally and physically
that there's not a lot of room to digest what happened.
It's not until later that I realized
that there was an attack on the metro as well.
At 9.11 a.m. that same morning,
another suicide bomber attacked the Malbec subway station
in the heart of Brussels.
Between the two attacks, over 300 were injured, and 32 people had lost their lives.
They included people of 14 nationalities, including Americans, mothers, fathers, students,
and even a pair of siblings who were on their way to visit their favorite city, New York.
Life is just, you know, it's on threads.
It's, um...
It's, um...
Yeah.
You need a lot of luck in these situations.
I remember being extremely impatient and desperate to hear his voice
and actually hear that he's okay.
The first conversation I had with Sarah, I tried to reassure her. I said, no, look,
I'm alive, I'm okay, everything's gonna work out. I didn't believe that he was
completely okay. You know, I didn't trust it in his voice. You know, you know your
your spouse, you know, and you can tell if they're okay or not. So I maybe calmed down a bit.
When I first arrived to the hospital, I just remember being so excited to see him.
We both did cry. There were tears, but that's a time of, I mean, I can't stop smiling because I remember that.
It's just that feeling of he's here and I can hug him and we can do this.
We're together. He made it.
We're only about a half a mile away from the office of the mayor.
I was in Brussels covering the attacks when I first met Sebastian.
Hey, Sebastian. How's it going, man?
The one thing I'm trying to ask myself all the time is, how did I get through this?
I would have signed, you know, on the dotted line that said, just to be alive and see my two girls again.
And I was there when Sebastian's father, his stepmother and two younger brothers,
flew from California and paid him a surprise visit.
What are you doing? Hi.
Come on, you can't do that to me.
He and his dad are really close.
Oh, man.
You got to give me a one-hands-up after all this. For him to be able to see his dad again
and everything that he'd been through,
I mean, he just kind of let it go.
I remember the military guy wrapping...
Tie it up here.
The big question,
would Sebastian ever walk again?
Over several weeks,
he had four more surgeries to repair the fractures.
Now it was a waiting game.
I look forward to challenging myself to get back to where I was before.
When I'm in the hospital, this is my pull-ups.
And you just hold, go back down.
He's a fighter. He's a man of positive thinking.
It's something every doctor hopes to have on his patient.
It's something every doctor hopes to have on his patient.
In the days after the bombings, tension is high and security is increased throughout Belgium.
The manhunt for the terrorists is intense. In the suburbs of Brussels, police arrest some of those involved in the bombings,
including the key player, Mohamed Abrini, the man with the hat.
Where are you going now?
To the hospital.
To the hospital? No, the hospital.
Hospital. Hospital. To the hospital. To the host-a-ble? No, the hos-pit-le. Hos-pit-le.
Hos-ta-ble.
Who are you gonna see?
Ha-ha. Yes!
It's unbelievable to think that I was very close to never seeing them again.
They just walk into the room and everything's great.
They just walk into the room and everything's great.
Hi.
What are you doing?
I think kids need to touch.
You know, they need to be present.
Come here.
Carefully.
Why are you afraid?
You think you're going to hurt my... You're not going to hurt that.
You're not going to hurt that.
You don't have to worry.
It's all better. Go ahead. Knock it away. Yeah. You're not going to hurt that. You don't have to worry. It's all better.
Go ahead.
Knock it away.
Yeah.
Try it.
FaceTime's great, but to see the actual cast, to touch it, you know,
they see that their dad is getting better, you know, is healing.
So what happened to Papa's, why did Papa hurt his leg?
Because of the bad guys.
Because of the bad guys?
What did the bad guys do to Papa?
Hit him.
They hit me?
He's not a toy.
And then the leg was broken because they hit me?
But where are the bad guys?
In there.
Okay.
So we're all good, right?
Can I still throw you up?
Can I still throw you up? Can I still throw you up?
I'm very happy to see you.
Tough boy.
Tough boy.
Why do you say tough boy?
Because you're strong.
I'm strong?
Hello.
But when it comes time for Sarah and the girls to go back to Michigan,
Sebastian can't go with them.
Look at Mama.
After enduring five surgeries, he needs one more.
And this one will determine whether he'll be able to walk again.
Hey.
Did I wake you up just now?
Are you sleeping?
I'm a little bit anxious about the surgery,
but I'm really looking forward to it. All right.
They're taking me.
They're going to put a pin through my knee,
which will solidify the tibia.
Love you, honey. See you in a bit.
Love you.
Love you, too.
The risk when you drill a pin into a bone
is that you increase the chance of infection.
It's a chance I'm willing to take. See you later, son. See you, buddy. to a bone is that you increase the chance of infection.
It's a chance I'm willing to take. See you later, Sam.
See you, buddy.
C'est incroyable, c'est le shrapnel qui est dans mon pied.
Je suis sorti bien. C'est un bon riddance.
L'opération a été bonne.
Je suis heureux que ce soit la dernière. Je vais l'ouvrir, ça va? with my legs just almost bare like this in two months.
Nothing is taken for granted anymore.
When you survive something like this, man, there's not one single minute
where you don't sit here in complete gratefulness. I felt pretty hard to get here and it's almost like it's full circle.
This last surgery was on Friday the 13th, coincidentally,
but the next day was his birthday.
So I made a video to his favorite song,
and I wanted to put something together,
photos for him to that song.
That's amazing.
It was a special birthday.
He was alive, celebrating, you know, turning 38.
So that's amazing.
I might have all the birthday presents I need for the rest of my life,
but don't tell my wife that.
This is the first time I've been out of the hospital really since the attacks.
Is there a ski limit?
The trip is to a Brussels basketball arena where Seb is heading to cheer on one of his old teams as they root for his recovery.
This was home for four seasons.
I've got some good memories here.
You're going to win!
Thank you very much for the support.
And thank you.
I did the jump ball, you know, half court
and see basically, you know, a 4,000-seat arena
just give me a standing ovation.
just give me a standing ovation.
Watching guys that I played with.
And so to see it was difficult. I still don't know whether
I will be ever able to do sports
like I was before.
You know, it depends how I heal.
This is a big step because it's all about being able to put more and more weight on my hip, which was reconstructed, and on my leg, which was completely reconstructed as
well.
So it's a big step.
Ready?
Let's go.
One, two, three.
Feel great.
That's more... good. Perfect.
That's good. Perfect.
All six surgeries are done. The follow-up has been done.
Everything is positive.
So the next chapter is being able to focus 100% on rehab,
which I'm gonna do at the University of Michigan.
But I think the big thing is for my daughters.
for my daughters.
I love him so much
with kisses on my cheeks.
For me to be present again
and for me to be
University of Michigan is an hour away
from our house so
it's a step closer. They'll be able to come visit.
I love him so much.
Tall, strong, and big.
It's about four in the morning. It's a big day, so I'm heading home.
It's a huge step because you kind of go from getting fixed to now recovery and getting
back to my old self.
And that to me is the biggest challenge because will I be able to get back to my old self?
Who knows, but I'm definitely going to try.
I'm flying out of Amsterdam to go back to Detroit.
Obviously Brussels airport to me is where it all happened.
I just don't want to go back there.
You know, I mean, there'm still, there's still vivid images
of the attack in my mind.
I just don't want to wake anything up.
Hello.
How you doing?
Oh, this is amazing.
You okay?
Oh, that's good. Oh, okay. Awesome.
I'm going to switch it.
Ready to take off?
I wanted the flight to obviously go well.
I was concerned about how he would be people who could come to be there.
He had no idea.
We're ready. We're bursting.
Okay!
I'm just waiting for Cece and V to run to me.
Three months in the making. It's a long time. I've been through in Detroit airport I don't know how many times so I know exactly where
we're heading but then the wheelchair exits the elevator.
And I see all my family that are there.
All of a sudden it's just, it's the realization that the toughest is behind you.
The road is still long, but you got all these people that got you back.
The amount of love that was in that group was just unbelievable.
You know, and it's something that I knew I could depend on
for the next stage of my rehab.
of my rehab.
I'm quite impressed with how well Sebastian's rebounded and healed.
He's taking everything on with a positive attitude.
Air ball.
And he hasn't had complications.
And so from that perspective, he's doing quite well.
Oh, yeah.
Dr. Sean Smith oversees Sebastian's rehab.
I mean, it's noticeably stronger.
He still has a really long way to go, though.
Here, what I really find, besides the physical progress, is the mental progress.
Like, I really feel confident getting up here and doing these things.
Show off.
So motivating to keep moving forward.
Jeez.
I think the hardest injury for Sebastian to overcome is going to be the left ankle and foot.
It's that he has severe nerve damage,
and we can't predict when somebody's going to be walking
or, in Sebastian's case, you know, shooting a jump shot.
Ah!
Today's the big going home party.
It's been a while in the making.
I haven't seen Seb in three and a half months.
Yo!
What's up, man?
Look at you!
You know what I'm gonna do for you?
What?
Hold on, stay right there.
Alright, come on!
I can't reach you now, man. Hold on, you know what I'm going to do for you? What? Hold on, stay right there. All right, come on. What's happening to me?
I can't reach you now, man.
This is going to be the first time you step foot into your house.
Yeah.
I mean, just describe how you're feeling.
When you're so close to death, those are things that seem so far away.
Now that it's there, you're like, dang it, I did it. You're like a couple hours away.
Like, I really did it.
I know you've got to pack, right? No, I'm already... You're good, a couple hours away. Like, I really did it. I know you got to pack, right?
No, I'm already...
You're good to go.
Mentally, I've been packed for a while.
At the University of Michigan,
Sebastian was aided by over 15 dedicated teammates
who helped him take his first steps.
And three, two, one.
I'm extremely grateful for all the people
that have helped me in the past and still
currently involved in healing me.
You bond to them because they're part of your rebuilding.
All right.
You know darn well that you're not walking out with this.
Come on.
All right.
So where are we going?
This is the game time.
All right.
This is it, man.
I'm so happy that he lived, obviously,
and he's doing so well.
But to have to kind of start over a little bit,
it's like, whoa.
No more hospitals for a long time.
Being in the hospital in Belgium for so long,
you do have to find motivation.
And the image I always had was being home.
So actually pulling up on June 23rd,
and I seen the girls.
Welcome home, Papa.
It was like it came full circle.
Oh, my God. Oh my God.
Sebastian may be home, but there's no escape from what he's been through.
And just three weeks later, he gets a sobering reminder.
The French president, François Hollande, has been briefed about what is happening right now in Nice.
Dozens of people, including several children, were killed when the driver of a truck... This is unbelievable.
It's tragic.
It's why this cycle of hate and viciousness needs to stop.
The 32 people that died in Brussels, I think about them all the time.
I think I've suffered from post-traumatic stress,
but I try to defeat it with all the other great things that are happening.
My turn!
No, no. Yay! You're good! Watch the speed limit, okay?
One, two, three, four.
For the first time since the attack,
Sebastian is able to retake the court where he once played in college.
After 234 days, he's finally back on his feet.
There's not a thing that can stop me now.
Making the most out of his second shot at life.
I love life, you know, and it's been good to me.
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