In the evening after the session, Eerens went to the toilet in one of the buildings of the parliamentary complex before heading home. When he realized that the lock was broken, he knocked and called for help, but no one heard him. The deputy was unable to call anyone because he left his phone on his desk. “For once, I didn’t take my phone with me. I thought that at least once I wouldn’t take this gadget, and that’s when I needed it,” said Frederik Eerens. Only after 13 hours, around 06:00 the next day, did a cleaning lady who came to work hear the deputy’s cries. After that, the politician was hospitalized due to oxygen deprivation, as the ventilation in the toilet stall had turned off for the night and the flow of fresh air had ceased. The press service of the Flemish Parliament called the incident “a particularly unfortunate coincidence.” They added that there had been no previous issues with toilet door locks. The cause of the malfunction is being investigated, and parliamentary services promised to take measures to prevent this from happening again.
