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The nurse who took the hoax call at the King Edward V11 hospital that the Duchess of Cambridge was at, has committed suicide.
There may have been other things associated with this sad act, but I am sure the pressure she felt over a plain mistake must have had some bearing.

Absolutely. Would imagine Kate's probably beside herself right now. From what the Beeb were saying the recording is still on the radio station's website; hopefully they will have the decency to remove it.

Poor woman and her family.

Whole new meaning to "die of embarrassment", so sad.

I just hope the Palace hadn't just put in a formal complaint?

Apparently the hospital said they hadn't Dave. It seems it was not her that divulged the information, merely transferred the call to the duty nurse. I think that shows a degree of acceptance of personal responsibility rarely seen these days, even though not necessarily justified. The effect on her family must be devastating.

I have a horrible feeling there's more to this than meets the eye. First instinct is some kind of hounding though of course that's pure speculation. I mean the media wouldn't do something like that after Leveson would they?

sad to hear on the news about this.

they did say that the 2 radio DJ's have been suspend.

Yes apparently no official complaints from the Palace, apparently Charles even made a joke about it. The 2 suspended apparently have gone from being popular to having death threats so I guess you can say justice has been done. That wont help her 2 kids just before Christmas.

Dave

I just don't get how someone can think its funny to make a hoax call about someone who's ill and may mis-carry! How would they react if it was done across them? We seem to today always have to push the limits of everything.

No complaint from the Royals, but I suspect they expected something like the hoax, but this? Poor Wills saw his mother hounded, his wife and now this. When will people learn?

Borg Warner wrote:I just don't get how someone can think its funny

If you look at the gormless air-heads who perpetrated the so called prank I think it becomes clear.

Original? No
Funny? No
Clever? No
Tasteless? Yes
Immature? Yes
Attacking somebody who can't fight back? Yes
Picking on the vulnerable? Yes

I imagine that the poor soul who apparently took her own life was in dire straits before this crass stupidity though.

Hindsight, being absolutely perfect, and armed with the knowledge of the final outcome, is so much more acute than the 20-20 variety. I don’t doubt for a minute that the tragic result of this could not possibly have been foreseen by the perpetrators. The laws of unintended outcomes are more labyrinthine than any Greek myth.

So, before they are hung, drawn and quartered, should they not also be considered casualties, although minor? And should they be punished solely for the horrific outcome of their activities rather than the deed in isolation? I’m not suggesting sympathy or leniency but a degree of circumspection.

I agree, this will hang over them forever, but lessons should have been learned from the Diana saga, when will the press/media learn? Kate is now being hounded just like Diana.

Jumper wrote: I don’t doubt for a minute that the tragic result of this could not possibly have been foreseen by the perpetrators.

No, of course not. They clearly could not have foreseen the outcome. In fact, I doubt that they foresee much beyond the gratification of their next puerile jape. They are guilty, if you will, of the things I mentioned above but they haven't done anything illegal. Unfortunately, the British press have taken their usual course of action.

The Metropolitan Police contact with their Australian counterparts, by the way, is northing more than a preparatory courtesy contact to pave the way for the Coroner's inquest, unlike reports that I have seen this morning claiming that prosecutions were being considered. Never let the truth get in the way of a good story, as they say.

Apparently however, they are casualties, their radio station proclaiming to all and sundry that they are mentally fragile and are being counselled for the trauma of being held to account for their stupidity... Unlike the victim in this case, who doesn't have the luxury of wallowing in self-pity.

Now, I don't claim to have seen all the coverage of this case, but I don't recall seeing an apology, or even an expression of sympathy from these two clowns and have no doubt that once the kerfuffle dies down, they will be back on air selecting their next victim, of course, it will have to be somebody who can't possibly fight back again.

I imagine the present deafening silence is for them to decide on how best to milk the publicity value when they do surface again.

Apparently they have done something illegal, and Australia police have requested an interview with them. It seems, and I’m not sure of the legal position in UK here, that the broadcast of a telephone conversation without the participants’ consent is illegal. So there may be sanctions to be applied.

In the list of things of which they are pronounced guilty, those things may all be found, certainly amongst mine anyway) in posts on here! With of course the possible exception (but not necessarily guaranteed) of ‘tasteless’! For all I know, although I admit the likelihood is somewhat limited, there may be several politicians, many bankers, and more than one judge who may have had strokes as a result of my posts! With any luck anyway.

At any rate, I don‘t think they attacked anyone who could not fight back, nor did they pick on the vulnerable. I believe a hospital of that standing ought to maintain adequate staffing levels. Further, to date no one knows anything about the pre-existing mental or physical state of the deceased so assumptions might be wide of the mark.

It may be that the absence of an expression of regret, or a full blown apology, is the result of expensive legal advice, or more likely a contractual device by the radio station. All I say is I thought we had come some distance from trial by ordeal and the days of Matthew Hopkins.

With regard to the questionable behaviour of the UK media, has there ever been even one radio presenter or other journalist who would not report such events? The tabloids perform their usual gory pantomime while the broads suck their cheeks in and hold their noses while doing the same. Coverage by the BBC has been, I think, by comparison, muted.

The apparent suicide and the prior hoax phone call might simply be an ill-timed coincidence? Nowhere has dared to say directly that the one thing precipitated the other.....though many in the media have suggested this simply by reporting the two facts together. My thoughts go out to the family.

Zeb wrote:The apparent suicide and the prior hoax phone call might simply be an ill-timed coincidence? .

Perhaps the Final Straw of an already fragile person?.

She apparently left a Suicide note to her family it was reported today, though no details where given of its content, obviously.

Zeb wrote:Nowhere has dared to say directly that the one thing precipitated the other.....though many in the media have suggested this simply by reporting the two facts together.

Curiouser and curiouser. Yet another aspect of this tragedy has not been aired in the press, or, as far as I can see, any medium that may be subject to legal penalty (see my post no.14, para 3).

The hospital, although wholly engaged in health services, is in the end a highly lucrative business. Just as is the radio station that still (at the moment) employs the presenters who made the ill-fated call. It’s clients, sorry, patients, are drawn from royalty, the extremely wealthy, and the globally famous and privileged. Nothing wrong with that, there’s a market for everything and if you can afford the cost of avoiding the vagaries of the NHS that we all know and cherish, and the associated lack of privacy, then why not? When you are ill, you are ill and all you want is to get better as quickly as possible.

But, if I were a prospective patient there and I became aware that my scarily expensive privacy and confidentiality might be at the mercy of the first person that happened to pass a ringing telephone, without the intervention of trained staff who could avoid a catastrophic lapse in security, I just might consider alternative centres of medical excellence. The legal, financial, and establishment lawyers available as discouragement to any attacks on the management of such a place are poised and bristling. And, of course, the sadly late Mrs. Saldanha had absolutely no responsibility or culpability for any such lapse in security. The CEO and the chairman of the business made a serious and controlled statement on the hospital steps concerning the basic chain of events, leaving the world prematurely to guess at the rest, which of course it has proceeded to do.

So, we are free to speculate. But not, I think, to draw conclusions or make accusations against any of those involved. Mrs. Saldanha’s surviving family must dread opening the newspaper or using the internet.