Prank phone call

I feel like Jings When I heard the news I thought there must be something else. Its a tragedy that a young mother should take her life like that.

Still the fact that a nurse put the call through and another gave out information from a hospital ward shows a lack of basic training in privacy.

When I have rung up hospitals asking for information I have only ever been told that my relation was either in the OPtheatre,'Wake Up' ward or the general ward. To find out more I was told to go to the hospital and enquire at the desk.

I never obtained anymore info. and these were not royals.

Local radio this morning has reported that she lived with her family in Bristol and stayed at staff accommodation in London whilst doing her shifts.

I have always disliked "practical jokes" as I think they are cruel relying as they do on humiliating someone.

Whether this poor woman had other problems or not, the fact is that these two idiots humiliated her to thousands of people to satisfy their own egos.

Yes. We don't know everything behind it by a long way. Maybe she was parted from her children for financial reasons and this pushed her over the edge. Very very sad.

I wonder if she had been pestered by the press? It's more than likely and could be why she was driven to suicide. The fact that she was in hospital accommodation away from her family, for whatever reason, could be of significance. Anyway, whatever the reasons, I just feel very sad about the whole thing.

Can't help it Bags.

We cannot know, jings. We cannot know what drove her to it. Anger is not justified.

Unless mental illness is involved.

" No one kills themselves for that" (from my previous post) I should have put "alone" on the end of the sentence.

I must admit that when I hear of someone with children killing themselves, my pity is slightly diluted with anger.

I think if the patient had been any other famous person (like a film star) the outcome may have been different I wonder if this poor woman felt that because it was the future king/queen it made it a whole different ball game? So terribly sad. May she rest in peace

Joan - I too hate the whole candiid camera idea - you do not know the state of mind of the person on the receiving end - it is just cruel.

For me it highlights the sheer arrogance of people working in the media - they really do think they are gods. And they mostly get away with it because there are so many people who will do anything to appear on TV etc. - it makes the feel important. Will these media bods ever learn?

Well, this thing has shamed Australia. Perhaps those DJs will finally pull their horns in now.

I've always hated so-called pranks, which set up innocent people. Things like Candid Camera too - they really disgust me, because the perpetrators hold all the advantage. I see it all as a form of bullying - pick on someone innocent, who has no idea what is going to happen, and set them up for humiliation. Unforgivable!

That poor nurse - what she went through in her mind must have been unbearable.

It's another verison of the Russel Brand/ Jonathan Ross situation with a worse, outcome. That was two stupid media presenters with a warped sense of humour and probably inflated opinions of their own importance, making a very thoughtless and crass phone call to Andrew Sachs about his grand daughter and thinking it was funny.

Perhaps being over paid makes these people lose their sense of decency and responsibilty. "I am so well paid I can do no wrong."

I think that poor woman must have been in a troubled state of mind to commit suicide and leave her children.
Children give you strength to cope with the most awful situations.

I think Phoenix is right and that this one event on its own is not going to provoke suicide. But it serves to emphasise that we may be unaware of vulnerabilities in those we contact. A woman was complaining in the hairdressers yesterday because her appointment had been put in the wrong week. She was giving the young receptionist a really hard time when it was not her that had made the error.
Also sometimes there could be cultural issues about bringing shame on the rest of the family that we can't understand. My DS has been doing voluntary work last week in a pacific culture where family is everything and the rights and sufferings of individuals means nothing.
We may have the worst tabloid press in the world (possibly) but we don't have the worst "shock jocks" I think. (But then there was the Brand and Ross thing which was pretty nasty and cruel...)

I was wondering just now as I made my coffee whether others in the 'hospital accommodation' she was said to be living in laughed about the prank. Even if they weren't laughing at her but at the situation, she might well have felt it very keenly. Of course, that is just speculation on my part.

Another speculation is that her family teased her about it.

We may never know. It was Jingle's remark that set me wondering.

Poor woman.

I've been wondering if this poor nurse had been receiving threats of some kind.

I guess if she held royalty in high esteem the fact she felt she had 'let them down' might be the last straw in what may have been a troubled life. It is not really our business to speculate but I just feel saddened that she was in such a vulnerable state that she took the step she did.
I am sure Kate & William will get over it, they have expressed their condolences. Apparently the 2 DJs are in hiding due to death threats.

What a dreadful tragedy. What can have possessed her to think that it was such a major mistake as to warrant her children losing their mother - I can hardly bear to think about it.

jO5. I am absolutely with you. I cannot imagine anything worse for any woman than to know that an event that is a joy and happiness to you (despite the medical problems) has led, through absolutely nothing you have done, to the death of someone else. My next door neighbour was killed in an air crash while I was in labour with DS. The shock stopped my labour and they had difficulty getting it going again.

Perhaps this will make those stupid puerile Aussie broadcasters think twice about practical jokes like this. They have already been in trouble with the Broadcasting Authorities in Australia for inducing/tricking a 14 year old girl to admit on air that she had been raped.

To my mind practical jokers are bullies with laughing faces. How anybody could possibly get entertainment and pleasure from humiliating someone else defeats me and the only amusement in this little jape was the humiliation of the person who answered the questions and thought they were talking to a member of the royal family and the humiliation of the Duchess of Cambridge if intimate details of her pregnancy and sickness were given on air.

"The woman must have had some kind of emotional problem. No one kills themselves for that."

jO5 , on what do you base that statement? How do you know what might cause someone to kill themself?

I can't feel sorry for the DJs. Idiots.

I feel sorry for William and Kate and I also feel sorry, in some way, for the Australian DJs. They're going to have to live with what they've done. A young mother would still be alive if they hadn't come up with the idea for such a prank.

OH reckons the "pranksters" were very clever to hit the night staff, and at the end of their shift as well.

How tragic and such sad news, the things people go to to get a story and make their names well known well lets hope these two in Australia have the common decency to at least apologise for being so stupid and to send condolences to the nurses family,you will never know how hard people take things until it happens to yourself she must have been distraught and felt she had let everyone down.

I agree that it's certainly not just Prince William we should feel sorry for!