Don’t blame those two Australian DJ’s (above) for the prank call that ended with that English nurse taking her own life. Many DJ’s make prank calls and they are often quite funny. It’s their job. The gullible nurse who was duped by the pair really didn’t give out any IMPORTANT information about Kate Middleton, she just looked a bit foolish. To have killed herself after this episode is absolutely shocking and tragic, but nobody’s fault. Something was VERY wrong with this nurse to have committed suicide over such an incident, and no one else should take the blame.
42 Comments
Janet, I couldn’t agree with you more. If the nurse had been fired or alienated by her co-workers for speaking out of turn then maybe I could understand her going into a deep depression, even suicidal thoughts. To blame the deejays is not fair. She had to be unbalanced before last week.
Doesn’t matter if they obtained any private information or not, the bottom line is that they lied to gain access to private medical information be it the queen, the duchess or paula public. NO ONE has the right to steal someone’s identity to fake their way into accessing anyone into giving them private information. The two DJs should be fired immediately. The Aussie judicial system should charge them with identity theft and fraud. They belong in prison for a good twenty years. Anyone who thinks differently would scream their head off if these two had done the same to one of their relatives, like their mom or sister. Get serious people! Pranks are simply going too far.
Janet I disagree. They and the station are directly responsible. Do you understand how serious the poms take the monarch? It’s like you lot seem to worship your presidents, so far as teaching kids in schools past presidents – which i find bizarre btw.
this same fuckery is what killed williams mother, and could very well kill his unborn child – irregardless of whether the nurse wa disciplined or not, have you not considered the shit she would receive from co’workers?
nurses are generally a type that care about people and likely sensitive. As well as being underpaid and overworked, they don’t need this fuckery to deal with.
those two ozzies should be fired, as should the creative team. Glad to hear advertisers are pulling their dollars out.
And who listens to the radio nowadays? I stopped a long, long time ago. Can’t stand the advertising and crappy music forced upon me, in this the ipod age.
To whom it may concern, IRREGARDLESS is not a word. You either meant ‘regardless’ or ‘irrigation’. Your message would have more credibility if you had used the right word.
However; I agree, the British press might have been hounding the poor girl and the shame of her gullibility over took common sense. No one likes to look like a fool. Can you imagine the world knowing you fell for a prank? For all we know she might have gotten into a lot of trouble with her employer. Imagine the standards of a private hospital in the UK that caters to royalty?
Educated Nurses are taught from day 1 that they are the last line of defense for the patients life. This nurse evidentially violated that very basic rule. No nurse I know gives information of ANY sort over ANY means of communication to the public. This is an instant breach of patient confidentiality, which calls for peer review, and appropriate sanctions.
Everybody on earth has royally messed up at one time or another… It’s kinda ” human”. To err is human, to live through the error is “grace”.
When a human ( such as this nurse) takes the place of “God” in deciding to end their own life, it’s to me very deranged. Very much in need of help, lots of it!
The people who conjured up this prank… We do not know enough of their educational levels, licensure qualifications ( if any). In the USA, this is valuable info in deciding what professional standards to uphold an individual ( or individuals) accountable to. Perhaps they have never encountered ” stalkers” before! Most people ( I believe) learn the hard way with the lesson commonly ending in death of some sort. So sad, so pathetic.
That noted… To blame the ” undereducated” is almost as serious a crime as giving out or giving up on patient confidentiality. I simply pray that some form of goodness ( or blessing) comes of the whole despicable mess created. Perhaps the radio commentators society of Brittan ( or Australia?) should decide how to pay it forward to create a positive outcome of such a tragic mess. XO.
I believe those DJ’s would be in a heap of legal trouble in the US for recording a private conversation without consent, invasion of privacy, and impersonating public figures.
The motivation for outlining a defense as is presented here in the face of such tragic circumstances gives me pause.
Great comments on this post. I’m on the fence about this one. Some of the pranks pulled by DJs on the radio can be funny, others downright mean spirited, and all for the “entertainment” of their audience.
I agree the nurse should have never forwarded the call to the Duchess’ ward, but perhaps if she really thought it was the Queen (does she even know how to dial her own phone?), maybe she also thought that she would get in trouble by saying something like Gee Your Majesty, as much as I’d like to help you, I can’t.
In any event, I suspect there had to be some issues there. I cannot imagine committing suicide over something which seems to me, to be so trivial.
On a lighter note, I have a new favorite word: “fuckery”. Thanks cal.
It is a very difficult situation. It was 5am in the morning and the call may have stunned the nurse, but made sense, that if the Queen was ever gonna call it was gonna be quietly with no fuss. She could hardly come visit the hospital.
The hospital is at fault, they should have had a proceedure in place, with a codeword or something. The hospital is at fault for not protecting this womans identity…how did the media get her name so quick and picture?? Awful Awful.
And, behind closed doors, I would say this Private hospital top brass reprimanded her and no doubt suspended or demoted her..this is what would drive a woman is dispair for her life, NOT some chat online about her. But we will never know the dirty secret of how he hospital treated her.
Radio Djs do stuff like this ALL the time. Even they were incredulous that they got through. If anyone could have sussed anything it would have been the nurse who spoke to the “Queen?” But the nurses are ground level workers, who work incredibly hard and are dedicated to the patient getting the best care, and supporting the families of patients.
the hospital top management has blood on their hands!!
While I agree that these DJs could not possibly have had any idea how this would all shake out, a lot of people don’t appreciate being pranked, especially with millions of people being in on it and listening with glee. Once you find out that all these people have had a good laugh at your expense, it’s upsetting. This woman obviously had some serious issues and this incident just pushed her over the edge. That being said, if these DJs are ever hired at another radio station, they should be forbidden to do anything like this again. It just isn’t nice. This was a tragic incident that I believe started out as something innocent, but people need to use the brain God gave them once in a while.
I don’t know if England has anything like the HIIPA we have here that protects any sort of private information about a patient, but the nurse was probably chastised by a supervisor, and at the very least, ragged on by co-workers. Knowing how the Royal Family is protected from the common folk, this was just a foolish mistake that had a tragic outcome. As a nurse, she should not have even transferred the call, because, really, would Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles pick up the phone and call a hospital? Doubtful. That’s what they employ assistants/secretaries for. That would have been a HUUUUUUGE red flag for me if I had been that nurse. I feel very badly for the woman’s family, because had it not been for those stupid DJs and their infantile frat boy behavior, she would still be alive. No one could have predicted this outcome, but knowing how the royals are protected from the pubic, the DJs should have been smart enough to figure out someone would be “royally pissed” if they were actually put through to Kate’s nurses.
Prank calls are one thing, but the behaviors involved in this instance reek of inappropriate (illegal?) conduct to say the least. I smell a very lucrative and well deserved lawsuit coming for both the radio station and it’s 2 guilty employees.
Janet, I agree with you. This story is absurd. First of all, the hospital where she worked came out and said her job was never in danger, and secondly, she was a nurse, for chrissake. Nurses have to be tough and strong. They see sad and horrible things constantly. How a woman, with two kids mind you, who works at a hospital where she must be thick-skinned just for the daily routine of her job, would choose to quit her life, quit her children, becuz she was embarrassed by a stupid prank is unfathomable. Also, she wasn’t the one who gave out any information, she just transferred the call. There’s something fishy about this story, but of course, the morons at tmz are running it like every half hour.
Insightful comments – in my opinion, you assume the risk for your actions. While the nurses death was not foreseeable, the DJs chose to act and as a result they will have to live with the fact that this nurse killed herself because of what they chose to do. It may not have been a criminal act but those two DJs will be prisoners to the haunting fact of her death.
I completely agree w/ Georgie, but the consequences can be devastating. The LA team of Kevin and Bean pulled a very nasty prank some years ago. They invited people to call them with their deepest secrets and one very creepy guy did – he proceeded to go into detail about a murder he had committed years before… but was never caught. He was very, very convincing. This got the attention of my bosses at a reality crime show I worked for at the time, especially because a story had come in a few months back from a grieving mother wondering who had killed her daughter. The circumstances in the phone call were very similar. Turns out that the “murderer” was a comic friend of Kevin and Bean’s. The mother had got her hopes up that her daughter’s case would finally be solved. My bosses tried to get Kevin and Bean fired or at least, fined big time. As I recall, they got a very small fine, and that was the end of it. I, too, think there was much more going on in this nurse’s life. I’m sure we’ll hear it all.
I don’t understand why the D.J.’s were speaking to a nurse in the first place. They should have been stonewalled by a patient placement/admitting clerk who knew proper protocol?
However, to take your life for a reason such as this speaks to the fragile mental state of the person involved.
This ambush shit won’t happen ever again I would think after this tragedy.
@RHC in FLA
You are correct. It’s with regard or regardless.
I can’t believe the hospital would pass this caller through. Not the nurses fault.
Don’t agree with you at all Janet. These type of prank calls are moronic, always embarass somebody. In the UK they take their Royalty very seriously, this woman was embarassed WORLDWIDE and who knows what her boss said to her afterwards. What if it really were the Queen and this woman hung up on her. Sometimes people have a very hard life and it only takes one thing to shove them over the edge. I have no problem if these dimbulbs get fired.
“It’s their job.” Yeah well, when you make your living off the backs of innocent victims who have nothing to do with your ‘job’, then you bear a degree of responsibility when things go wrong.
TMZ is reporting this isn’t the first stunt they pulled that was cruel and had unintentional consequences. In fact, one of the others was almost as bad.
I’m sure William and Kate feel like crap, and this has cast a pall over Kate’s entire pregnancy that’s not going away.
Apparently the radio station is concerned enough about legal fallout that they cancelled the DJs show today.
I have no sympathy for them, or the station that allowed them to do things like that.
Janet–
I disagree with you! The hospital, doctors and nurses are charged with guarding the patients’ confidential information. She broke that responsibility, and was deeply shamed by it. What if YOU were in the hospital, and someone you didn’t know “pranked” you to gain information about your physical state! It’s disgusting. Yeah, they are celebrities but they are PEOPLE TOO!
Whoa Molly.. “when you make your living off the backs of innocent victims who have nothing to do with your ‘job’, then you bear a degree of responsibility when things go wrong.”
That really is the bottom line, an unassailable point. Well said.
Was it really suicide or was it murder???
Probably more too it…was the nurse an illegal or something else going on and the publicity got her in a twist?
Why was she embarrassed by this “worldwide”? I watch the news everyday and I had never even heard of any of this until after her “suicide”, which the last I read was “death under mysterious circumstances”. There are really important things going on in the world; I think only a tiny percentage of the world knew or cared about this dumb ass prank. And there’s no info about how she died, only that they’re taking her remains back to India.
Lastly, who hasn’t been pranked in their life? Pranks are an annoying but very tiny part of life (I admit I did some silly pranks with my friends when in school). This prank wasn’t even leveled at her personally, she was a tiny cog in how it played out. The DJ’s are obnoxious to be sure, but I think there is something substantial missing in this woman’s makeup, common decency (in that she abandoned her kids), sense, and good judgement. (Unless of course she was actually murdered or died naturally)
There are many horrific things that happen to us over our lifetimes that can cause one to snap and commit suicide, like dealing with a terrible disease, or suffering from untreatable depression, or losing a child…but putting a phone call through?!? Please. We lost a child a few years ago in a horrific accident that was well publicized and had a horrible injustice (to us) connected to the death. You wanna talk about trauma? It never once occurred to me to heartlessly abandon my other children and loving husband.
No I think this was something else, something deeper. There is no evidence that has come to light that she did this becuz of the prank, no note, no info about the death, nothing. Only rampant speculation from the tabloid media.
Disagree wholeheartedly
Leave Kate and Wills alone
Kate was in hospital – not for fun because she was ill and early in her First pregnancy. Can you imagine IF she miscarries? Those two had no business phoning the hospital. Leave those two alone
They’re the victim of hypocrisy!
They only did a joke who worked.
Before her suicide,we didn’t know who the nurse was and apparently it’s easy to have by phone some medical or private informations .
I’m sorry for the nurse or her family but we can’t blame the DJ .
Thank you..
I am so tired of hearing about everyone wanting to ‘hang’ the DJ’s for this. This IS tragic, but this woman had a family: husband, children. She takes her life because of a stupid prank call? There had to be other issues going on. It’s not fair to keep blaming the DJ’s for this..
No, I disagree. It is stupid to play these pranks, and people who enjoy this kind of thing need to get a life. Sorry, but, it it their faults.
I’m sure the nurse has demons in her past to kill herself for no reason. Pranks are done all the time — and people don’t kill themselves. Even cancer patients don’t kill themselves. She was very troubled.
What’s the difference between a practical joke and a temperature?
Nurses can take a temperature.
Cheers Denise – I have many other words in my vocab, I may share in the future.
Oops, meant vocabularly least I offend someone else with my incorrect choice of wording…
cal xx
While I feel sorry for the family of this nurse, the DJs are not to blame for her death. She made a mistake.
It unfortunate that she was undoubtedly subjected to disciplinary action and ridicule from umpteen sources.
The combination of embarrassment, humiliation, and God knows what other emotions and psychological factors led HER to make the decision to end her life. SHE made a decision and SHE acted on it, end of story.
Thank u mackie!!! I am leaning on murder. Now all of sudden she was crazy, sad, and or had issues?
These people are going to care about a wife, mother 2 who leave her kid’s. RRRRRRiiiiiiiiiiggggggggghhhhhhhttttt.
If they didn’t care for princess di to be murdered why would they have a second thought on this woman?
ofcourse not, everybody who think they were are idiots.
listen: her mental part was maybe reaching the limit because her entire family was pissing on her or a divorce was there or financial troubles?
anyway: THIS WASN’T A HEALTHY REACTION BY FAR!!
BE HONEST: every normal person would laugh: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
It’s true that other dj’s perform pranks – but they need to get written consent, before someone’s voice is on the air. This conversation was recorded without her knowledge and consent – which, in Australia, and 38 states in the U.S. is illegal.
It is not ok to pull mean pranks on others. It’s a form of bullying. These people should be ashamed of their behavior and the consequences of their “joke”. They can rationalize all they want but what they did was wrong.
To the people who say it isn’t the DJ’s fault? If the DJs had not DONE something so stupid, that nurse would be alive today. This woman didn’t ask to be pranked and laughed at worldwide.
No Shelby, she would have killed herself the next time she made a mistake & someone called her on it.
It’s not the DJ’s fault.
This is being driven by a combo of the wretched British tabloid press & the hospital’s PR machine to deflect the fact that they hired a seriously mentally ill person to work with patients.
The tabs can’t get away with hacking celeb’s phones anymore, so they found someone & something new to banner.
The hospital is in deep shit from the rotten royals over falling for such fake voices without confirmation & want to transfer the blame to someone else.
The worst part, it’s working.
The DJ’s feel their to blame, they’re not!
I read on MSN where the radio station paid the woman’s family more than $500,000 in damages. I don’t know if they admitted guilt of some kind of just wanted to prevent a multi-million wrongful death lawsuit from the family. Women of Indian heritage are often very shy and unassuming. It could be that she was simply overcome by shame and embarrassment. No one knows why she decided to do what she did, but those DJs MUST own part of the blame, because they embarrased the poor woman unmercifully. Whether intentional or not, THEY made the prank call.
They didn’t embarrass the woman “unmercifully” the Brit press did that!
@Shelby, I read that too. Obviously a preemptive strike to avoid litigation that would keep this issue in the press forever. I’m sure any release included a statement that the payment was not an admission of liability.
I strongly believe she had to have had mental problems to take her own life, however the DJs were wrong for what they did.