Oosterzele The 28-year-old David Verhelst from Balegem came in april of last year to a kajakongeval in Dinant, while a mother and her child in the water for help, heard the call. The Royal Society for recipients of decorations and medals of Belgium decided to posthumously a medal to award to him, “A real act of courage and self-sacrifice.”
The facts occurred on april 7, 2018, around noon, in Dinant. David and his dog, Vito, traveled to the Lesse with a kayak. During the trip he had already had a first time a mother and her daughter helped. He sent a text message to his wife and parents, he is just a rescue operation was undertaken. Later, at the final hurdle tilted the kayak of the same mother and daughter. David heard the hulpkreten and decided immediately upstream to sail to help them. By the roaring water and the passage of the mother and daughter is his kayak when tilted and he then drowned. All the help couldn’t help him. His dog Vito could itself save.
A heart of gold
It was a huge blow for the family, at the time of the tragic accident was his girlfriend, pregnant with their second child. He was the only child of mother Annie and father Patrick. They had a close bond with their son, who near lived. “David had a heart of gold,” said Leonie in a conversation with our newspaper. “Everyone saw hém like. He was a good man.”
