the nurse who took the hoax call has killed herself

[catgirl1976geesealaying]

not aibu but :(

the poor woman

and the hoaxers must be feeling terrible

Oh my God, how awful. And she wasn't even the one who discussed confidential information, she simply answered the phone? So sad.

As if nurses don't have a hard enough job without having to deal with this crap. I really feel for her poor family! :(

The other thread has been pulled apparently but I said before I feel so angry at the hospital management for not having systems in place to protect their staff. Imagine your humiliation being broadcast across the world to billions and feeling like you're the laughing stock of the entire world - what a massive impact that must have had on the poor woman.

Whether she had other issues or not, this would be a massive massive burden on the strongest person. Royals have protection in place against this type of thing - this nurse didn't I am so angry on her behalf.

However crass the Aussie radio people were, this isn't in fact their fault, there are always random idiots out there waiting to try it on. It is down to hospital management to put barriers in place. My thoughts and care are with poor Jacintha's family. I am sorry beyond belief about this

I just read this.

Truly sickening.

Why are we being told to come to AIBU from In the news?

very, very sad.

BTW SGB - it wasn't a 'harmless prank call' if it precipitated her SUICIDE now was it?

If ever there was a time to impose greater controls on the media, it is now.

I feel extremely angry at those two Radio journos but as others have pointed out I am sure they will be very upset at this too. I bloody hope they are anyway - if they have a conscience, that is.

Her poor dh and children

RIP

So so sad. Must be other issues too but still this was the final straw. How terribble.

So they're sorry are they? Oh that's alright then, that'll be a great comfort to her DH and children.

Just as they were sorry about tricking a 14 year old girl into revealing she had been raped, on air. You'll forgive me if I don't take their apologies too seriously.

People kicking up a stink about prank calls rarely bothers me, but a woman died FFS! At the very least they should lose their jobs, and if they can be charged with a criminal offence then they should.

No: blaming the radio DJs for this is wrong. They had no desire or intention to cause this woman harm. They may well have been motivated by a perfectly reasonable wish to point out what a fucking fuss about nothing the whole Royal Baby is - some posho is pregnant. Good luck to her and all that but so fucking what?

That a hospital receptionist is dead (suicide is not confirmed) is sad but there is almost certaily little or no connection. Yet her death is going to be exploited (just like Di's car crash) to reinforce a Know Your Place Peasants, Royalty Is Sacred mindset.

^^ really?

I think it's painfully sad. Whilst the DJ's may not be held directly responsible, they MUST lose their jobs over this surely.
That poor poor nurse.

pretending to be someone's relative to get personal information about their condition from a hospital is a disgusting thing to do. it isn't funny at all, whether the patient is royal or just your next door neighbour whom you suspect of having haemorrhoids.

it shouldn't have happened. the receptionist nurse and information passing nurse had every right to expect a caller to be genuine, and not to expect to be lied to. decent people would expect honesty in that situation, from other decent people. and the great strength of what used to be great britain is that we are (used to be) decent people.

anyone can make a mistake at work. most of us are not mocked on a global scale for making our mistakes. we don't hear them on national and international radio ( i first heard this on the world service).

culturally australia might be different from the uk, but that isn't really an excuse. it was underhand, shameful behaviour and it led to an innocent woman taking her life. God rest her soul and grant her peace. prayers for her family.

I am not the slightest bit bothered that it was to do with the Royals, I am staunchly republican. Its the fact that in the name of entertainment, these people didnt think about how they would make their victims feel.

And because of that, a woman, who yes it must be admitted was probably already troubled, took her life.

The DJ's who did this are responsible for that poor womans death.

There is an extent to every joke/prank. As far as I'm concerned, once a joke enters the realms of breaking the law it's not a joke anymore. These idiots broke the law by assuming another persons identity to divulge information. That's not a joke.

This poor woman was obviously affected by this stupid stunt and now her family are paying for it. I hope the presenters are happy now they have blood on their hands.

It's nothing to do with sacred royalty, as much as that evidently bothers you, but rather it is about the behaviour of the media, towards someone who was not royal. If they had got through to William on the phone, fair enough, prick his bubble if that's what you want, but they targeted medical staff who neither seek nor deserve this kind of attention.

It's not a royal story, it's a 'shock jock gone too far' story.

I saw this earlier in the news and it has really upset me. She must have felt so desperate - and as others have said, she was probably at a vulnerable point in her life anyway, and this was just the last straw.

I actually feel a bit sorry form the DJs too - because, even though they should have thought about this, I am sure they never anticipated how things would end.... And actually, the stuff that was disclosed about Kate was pretty harmless anyway. If it was anyone other than "royalty" there would not have been such a fuss. There is nothing special about Kate - she is just a young woman like all of us.

I think people completely laying into the radio presenters here is also wrong.

What has happened is a complete and utter tragedy, for the deceased, her family, the royals, and the radio presenters will all never forget this for the rest of their lives.

The joke of the prank callers (and that humour is not to my taste, but some people must like it as it happens a lot and there is a whole tv show based around prank calls) is that their accents were soooo bad they would never have expected to be put through. If the radio presenters were hung up on, which should have happened, no one in the UK would know who these Australian radio presenters were.

Whether the call should have been aired after they were put through is another matter and the radio station themselves made a bad call on that, a bit like the Sachs case over here, but ITV have still picked up Jonathon Ross and I bet a lot of Mumsnetters still watch his programme now he is on ITV.

A terrible consequence has come out of a bad judgement call, but we are all guilty of those many times in our lives. I feel uncomfortable with how people are laying into these radio presenters, they would never have wanted Jacintha dead and bet if they could they would turn back time.

Hate prank calls, but these two tossers took it to a whole new level by actively deceiving someone into relaying confidential patient information. If some one did that to take the piss out of one of your ill family members you would be pretty pissed off.
female nurses have a 4 times greater suicide incidence than the average woman in the uk. we go to work every day worrying if we will have enough time to do all we need to to keep are patients safe and well, we do endless hours of unpaid overtime (because we are stupid) because if we don't the work doesn't get done and someone could be harmed.
On top of all that shit two australian twats thinks its ok to humiliate and ridicule you internationally regarding a call you answered at 5:30 in the morning when you were probably too tired to even think straight.
I doubt she had underlying mental health issues other than being on the edge the same way every other nurse with a conscience in the uk is every day. She must have been worried about professional review, the possibility of losing her job, the fear she might lose her registration.
Some arse said we shouldn't get angry with the DJs or maybe they would do the same, boo hoo, they were looking for publicity, she wasn't. Long may they enjoy there 15 minutes of fame, twats.

....and breath, rant over, sorry!

Well said, monty.

Tragic news. Some "pranks" go too far, and as some have correctly pointed out, contacting a hospital to get information about a patient using fake information is simply wrong. The fact that the patient and her condition is so high profile makes it worse (don't forget, regardless of anyones stance on the monarchy, we are talking about the future king and his wife, and another future king/queen...this is a pregnancy that the world will be following daily)

My heart goes out to the nurse and her family.

I hope the 2 DJs and their producers are all sacked. After all, what happened here with Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand...it's the least that should happen to them.

Also found it interesting that the BBC says that the nurse was lonely and confused. Doesn't sound like she was given much help or support after the incident from higher up. We need proper protection for our nurses. They do an amazing and often thankless job.

If nothing else, I hope some lessons have been learnt. Just wish they didn't have to be learnt in such tragic circumstances.

I keep imagining how awful she must have felt. You answer the phone everyday to calls regarding patients and are very conscious of trying to make sure they are entitled to be given info. It could happen to any of us (except I've never actually looked after anyone of media interest). The poor woman just put the call through, but I'm sure that however supportive the hospital say they were there will have been someone trying to wind her up, there's always someone happy to kick you when your down.
Such a tragedy for her family.

Yes, Monty I agree, I really do question why there is not much press attention on the failure of the hospital management.

This is where the buck stops IMO. The aussie journos are dimwit prats, no doubt, but there are plenty of those in the world - if you were a hospital with the highest profile patients but leave your phone line unmanned so a busy medical nurse has to pick it up in amongst her real duties - what kind of management does that hospital have?

Where were the protocols and procedures that should protect staff and patients? I find the hospital management very culpable here. I also wonder how much harranguing (sp?) Jacintha may have received unofficially even if she wasn't disciplined. Sounds like she was the bread winner too