So Very Sad

[flump1]

It has been reported that the nurse who answered the phone and was duped by the prank regarding Kate in hospital has been found dead. Such bloody sad news.

[matron 22]

Why does she have to have had other issues? I know personally how something
like this can destroy ones career and lead to despair. Nurses are human like the rest of us and I wish the media/ press etc would think before they act. My heart goes out to her family.
If you have nothing nice to say then please refrain from doing so

[joko]

matron, because your average happy person does not kill themselves anyway, and certainly not just because they have had a prank played on them.

most people would have been a bit embarrassed but untimately laughed it off.

there is no shame in having mental health issues - and it is you that appears to be viewing the comments that she may have had them as an insult, not anyone else...

[Smowball]

Poor poor woman, and for her own husband and children - they must be devastated.

[vulcan]

I don't think a story relating to you going around the world would leave you "a bit embarrassed".

[AlwaysConfused]

Pranks are amusing, I'm a bit of a prankster myself. Totally Humiliating someone is not funny

[joko]

depends on the story really ... all she did was answer the phone and transfer the call to the relevant dept ...

[joko]

so what other checks do hospitals do to screen phonecalls then?

they ask if you're family, you say yes, they tell you how the person is...

its not like there is some rigourous screening test she should have run through, like security questions, personal details, prove of ID etc - she is a nurse, not a security officer, she did what every other nurse when manning the switchboard does when faced with a call from a relative.... she just passed the call on to someone else, in the relevant department.

.. i really dont understand why she would have been so embarrassed by that, as to be suicidal...

[vulcan]

This,for example, is The Times of India,they refer to hoax and a prank as did the rest of the worlds newspapers. It isn't what happened, it's how it was reported.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/uk/Nurse-involved-in-Kate-Middleton-hoax-call-dies-King-Edward-VII-hospital/articleshow/17524386.cms

[Zeuhl]

Without excusing the djs - anyone could have called the hospital and caused problems

Where was the hospital's policy and procedure for handling calls to that ward or related to that patient
The hospital isn't new to having VIP patients with security issues surely a Royal secretary/hospital manager interface would have an agreed and secure process agreed and then all staff should have known exactly how to handle a call.

It's not hard, a printed page next to the phone with a short paragraph " I'm sorry. For security reasons I must redirect your call to ..."

Leaving nurses (who already have plenty to do) exposed in this way is incredible.

[netibiza]

That is so very sad, I hope those journalists get punished for this. It is not the nurse's fault in my opinion. A posh private clinic should have a proper switchboard operator who would know the ropes and what to do if the "queen" ever called! Nurses are there to nurse and tend the sick, not to deal with phone calls.

[gness]

And of course we know her children weren't weren't being teased beyond bearing and her family weren't the butt of ongoing jokes and laughter.
In truth we know very little except that something got too much for this poor lady.
Zeuhl has made a very good point.

[joko]

oh i understand her feeling daft to be taken in by it - but to leave her 2 kids motherless and widow her husband over it?
what she did is not even that bad really, just naive.

suicide is not the average reaction to something like this

millions of people the world over suffer much more serious embarrassment and dont feel the need to die.

i wish she'd waited a few days and she'd have seen it would have blown over soon enough.


of course there is a chance this is not suicide at all, and either she was ill or been murdered and its just coincidental.

[joko]

i agree zeuhl - she is a nurse not a security officer or switchboard operator - she just rerouted a call... because she probably didnt know what to say - and didnt want to say the wrong thing - imagine if shed have put the phone down on the real queen or accused her of being a fake!?

[Iluvspikey]

She wasn't the nurse who gave out the information, she just answered the original call and transfered the pranksters (I know what I'd like to call them) to another nurse who gave out the info on the Duchess. So sad.

[barney15c]

Sorry i have no sympathy for the Dj's , they go out to provoke and shock all in the name of a 'bit of a laugh' at other peoples expense. well i hope you two are proud of yourselves, because of your actions you have orphaned 2 children and made a husband a widower. There have been instances in the past where people have been humiliated and distressed by stupid actions like this, but people have to push the boundries further in the name of entertainment. Lets hope if any scrap of good comes out of this desperately sad tale is that people think long and hard before doing this... but sadly i somehow doubt it. These two idiots will have to live with their actions for the rest of their lives.

[chaptazbru]

I agree with you barney. To me, it was a form of bullying. They should be sacked.