When 26-year-old Noémie from Mouscron suffered pains in her back and lower stomach she called a local on-call doctor. On opening her door she discovered a young woman of her acquaintance who lacked any medical qualification. But the woman reassured Noémie that over the past two years she had regularly done work placements in the medical field as well as occasionally standing in for doctors.

She also explained that the doctor on call was not well and did not feel up to carrying out examinations, so he had asked her, his girlfriend, to take Noémie’s blood pressure and check that all was well with her lungs. The woman then carried out a number of unusual procedures, including reusing a syringe that she had earlier thrown into the bin.

The doctor considered his girlfriend to have sufficient medical experience and did not think it necessary to refer the patient to another general practitioner.

Noémie has pressed charges. The ‘false’ doctor could be charged with illegally giving medical treatment and the doctor himself for not helping someone in danger.

Police in Brussels’ commune Sint- Joost-ten-Node were able to stop a suicide attempt last week – by shooting the man who was threatening to kill himself. The man was brandishing a 25-centimetre knife and shards of broken glass with which he said he intended to take his own life. One officer was backed against a wall and shot the man in the chest. The man was taken to hospital and pronounced to be in stable condition.

Source: Flanders Today 15/06/2011

A road linking Vilvoorde with Neder-over-Hembeek has been suddenly blocked by posts preventing motorists exiting or accessing the ring and reaching Brussels or Flanders by transiting the street in the Flemish Brabant commune. The commune’s mayor Marc Van Asch said the road block followed complaints by residents about the high level of traffic using Rue du Craetveld. Brussels’ inhabitants now have to make a large detour to access their homes.

Thieves broke into the Palais de Justice over the weekend, stealing a laptop, black robe and a bag filled with documents from the office of the attorney general De Wolf, who heads the prosecutor’s finance department. They left behind a yellow workman’s hard hat and appear to have forced a window after scaling the building’s scaffolding.