Chances are you’ve heard the Henri van Breda emergency calls from the morning of January 27, 2015 – if you haven’t, you can do so HERE.

As court resumed yesterday Dr Michelle van Zyl, the emergency doctor who treated Henri’s injuries, testified in court about both his wounds and his state of mind during their encounters.

Their first meeting occurred at around 20:25, with van Zyl quoted below on TimesLive:

“I saw Henri van Breda in the evening at Vergelegen Mediclinic. He had a few 3cm scratch marks‚ a chest scratch of 6cm and another one of 8cm. None of them were bleeding and all were superficial. They did not require stitches so I just put clips on them. He was a hundred percent orientated‚ and showed no signs at all of a concussion.”

Van Zyl [above] said Van Breda was “friendly and relaxed” when he first visited the hospital of his own accord with a family friend at 20:25 on January 27‚ and she said she could faintly smell alcohol on his breath‚ almost a full day after Henri testified to having drunk wine with his family at their home.

After she was informed that Henri was a potential murder suspect she conducted a second medical, and this time the mood had changed. News24 reports:

She was informed that he was a suspect in a murder investigation and was asked to complete a J88 form.

“The second time, he wasn’t so friendly and jovial, like when I saw him the first time,” she told the court.

He appeared calm and confident and answered questions with one-word answers.

A J88 is an official justice department form which documents the medico-legal examination that a healthcare practitioner performs on a patient, and highlights findings that could be relevant for legal purposes, according the SA Medical Journal’s website.

During his plea statement van Breda claimed to have sustained injuries during an altercation with the “balaclava-clad” attacker, although that theory was put through the ringer last week:

He also claimed he had lain unconscious at the bottom of the staircase at the luxury home after the encounter with the intruder.

Last week‚ a forensic pathologist [Dr Marianne Tiemensma] testified for the state that several of his wounds were most likely “self inflicted”.

Today will see Tiemensma return to the stand, as well as a pathologist for the defence.

[sources:timeslive&news24]