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It is no doubt a miracle that two-year-old Zara Bryant survived the horrific attack that took place at Melbourne’s Bourke Street Mall on January 20 when 26-year-old Dimitrious ‘Jimmy’ Gargasoulas allegedly drove his car into the busy CBD mall, killing six people.
Thrown 150 metres into the air, the toddler somehow survived. Her little brother, three-month-old Zachary, however, did not.
Parents Matthew Bryant and Nawwar Hassan Bryant have now opened up to Channel Nine’s A Current Affair about the tragedy that unfolded the day they lost their son.
“He was the absolute light of our life, he was absolutely perfect,” Mrs Bryant said.
“Our whole life is basically just robbed of him,” added Mr Bryant.
Both children had been asleep in their prams with the family’s nanny when the horror unfolded.
“I ran like madmen down Spring Street …took a cab to the [Royal] Children’s Hospital,” Zachary’s father recalled. “It was horrible.”
“Even when they all walked in and said he was brain dead, it was surreal to me. Literally, that morning I was playing with him in the living room and the next minute you have got a doctor telling you he is clinically dead.”
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The couple also described the heartbreaking final moments with their son as they said their goodbyes.
“We were able to hold him again, properly, like holding a baby and having him in our arms and hug him one last time, even though we knew that we were holding a lifeless baby but we knew that he was ours and we had to say goodbye,” Mrs Bryant recalled.
Zachary’s injuries were so severe that he was rushed to the Royal Children’s Hospital in a police car, with The Age reporting that paramedics said there wasn’t time to wait for another ambulance. He died later that night.
“From the moment I found out I was pregnant with him right until the time I laid him down to rest, he was just perfect,” recalled Ms Bryant.
Admitting it’s the little things, like seeing Zac’s pram that break her heart.
“It really breaks my heart. It reminds me of a life I once knew. A pram that carried both my children everywhere I went and it’s sad. Of course it really strikes a cord when I see it,” Mrs Bryant said.
Gargasoulas has been charged with five counts of murder and is expected to be charged with a further, sixth count.
