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[Dotsie]

Having worked in a hospital, I can tell you, that any mistakes you make do not just leave you feeling humiliated. We wouldn't want people that lacking in compassion working in a hospital in the first place. You say you don't judge, and yet you have called the woman pathetic! Sounds very judgemental to me, lucky then that you know all the details of this poor woman's last days.

[Bouncy Castle]

The nurse who is dead did NOT give out the information.

She's the one that answered the phone, and put the call through to Kate's room. The nurse in the room gave out the information.

[simmonds91]

You misunderstand, I think it is pathetic if she took her own life if it was out of guilt/humiliation at giving away the information, I don't judge anyone for taking their life, for taking their LIFE that is, as for WHY whoever does it is another matter. Guilt over giving info and killing oneself is something I will judge as pathetic (it isn't going to erase the past), you are right though, I don't know why she did it which is why I said "I assume", a "what if" kind of thing. I don't know what it's like to be a nurse so I apologise for my ignorance there and as the poster above me said, it wasn't her that gave the info in the first place but again I did only give a "what if", no need to chew my head off.

[Dotsie]

No need to be so callous about someone who's just died, however it might have happened.

[Conforumist]

I truly hope the nurses death was an accident, or coincidental. The whole thing is a royal f'up. The radio people should be charged. Is that going to happen?

[Jack Remillard]

Looks like there's some pretty fierce arguments going on about whether what they did was illegal or broke broadcasting rules.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/dec/0 ... oyal-prank

One pretty incredible argument they are making is that they were not required by the rules to get permission from the nurses to transmit the recorded phone call because they were in Britain rather than Australia...

As for whether or not it was suicide, I'm waiting to hear what the coroner has to say.

[Jan Van Quirm]

I don't judge anyone for taking their life, for taking their LIFE that is, as for WHY whoever does it is another matter.
....I did only give a "what if", no need to chew my head off.

Point is simmonds, despite your seemingly liberal attitude to not judging anyone taking the suicide road the fact that you think WHY is another matter seems quite unjust doesn't it?

If someone decides to take their own life, whatever the reason they have for doing that is a big deal to THEM - nobody else can say what will drive someone to something so drastic.

Having said that there's usually going to be a number of factors and not just one thing that tips a person over the edge. Until a coroner's investigation is held we can't know what this tragic lady's true situation was - the hoax could have been the latest event that pushed her over the limits so she couldn't bear to carry on. She was working away from home and family in Bristol for starters, which is hardly a cushy lifestyle and who knows what her state of mind was when this all got dumped on her. Killing yourself takes guts because you're not just hurting yourself and this lady had a family so I'm sure there's more to this than one bad day at the hospital.

It's also not just the DJ's who're responsible - why the hell was a trained nurse doing reception duty in the best private hospital in London? Prices they must charge they should have 24/7 call screening for ALL their wealthy patients and telephonists who know how to handle time wasters. The fact was it shouldn't have happened at all, whether or not it was a royal's privacy at risk.

[Conforumist]

Our news just finished saying "apparent suicide". Which I know does not mean much, but..

[Jack Remillard]

Well, the post-mortem examination hasn't happened yet.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20673899

I know it appears on the surface that she probably committed suicide, but experiences in my own life have made me wary of prejudging these things again.

Though really, it's tragic however it happened.

[Del]

I think anyone would agree any loss of life is tragic. Personally I believe there's more to this woman's situation.

The young DJs are being hung out to dry over this. Upper management at the station approved chestunt and are ultimately responsible. Yes you do need permission to record a person's conversation here in Australia . Seems they didn't get it. Thing is... until the death happened everyone thought twas funny... just another radio stunt. I haven't ever really understood radio stunts like these but they are perpetuated all over the world daily.

Why is the hospital not taking any of the blame? Surely staff were trained in telephone protocols. And as has been said.... why was a nurse answering the phone... it's terribly expensive hospital... to cheap to have a receptionist for after hours?

Whenever my mother was in icu or any ward no nurse ever gave out information about her except to the nominated person.... and since she had 10 sons and daughters we still had to go through whosoever had been nominated to get the information. The only exception was if she was well and awake and they personally asked her if she wanted the call.

There is never ONE thing that fails in these situations... it's usually a series of events. Its unfair to blame ONE person. I think a few people have something to answer for here.

And I don't think we are going to get absolute answers on this poor woman's state of mind.. its reached the stage where it's all too easy to assign outside blame.

[chillicamper]

Why was a nurse answering the phone... it's terribly expensive hospital... to cheap to have a receptionist for after hours?

There is never ONE thing that fails in these situations... it's usually a series of events. Its unfair to blame ONE person. I think a few people have something to answer for here.

And I don't think we are going to get absolute answers on this poor woman's state of mind.. its reached the stage where it's all too easy to assign outside blame.

Exactly. The hospital has a Royal in the house and doesn't ensure that it's telephone procedures are in place as to how to deal with calls regarding them and who should pick up the phone??

I think a lot of people have a hand in this. Apart from the DJs, the radio bosses signed off the stunt. Did they not think to have a plan in place so that if they were taken seriously, they did not continue to call and obtain medical information? Surely no one is stupid enough to think that obtaining private medical info about anyone - let alone a member of the royal household - is a good idea.

And we really don't know anything about the poor lady. Whether it was solely this event that lead to her dead, or whether there are other personal factors....it's still very tragic.

Why belittle the reasons why she felt suicide was her only option? (if it was suicide). Depression is very powerful and for anyone suffering from it, the smallest detail can become the biggest obstacle.

[Quatermass]

Something stinks about the nurse's suicide, if it was suicide. Maybe the hospital management, or at least one of her superiors, hounded her to death in the aftermath of the prank. After all, it doesn't look good for a hospital's image if one of your most famous clients, wanting privacy, ends up having a pair of Australians imitate the Royal Family and con their way through. The actual incident seems slightly too trivial to commit suicide over, so maybe the nurse's job was threatened in the aftermath.

[Dotsie]

Why is the hospital not taking any of the blame? Surely staff were trained in telephone protocols.

I should think the hospital got a massive bollocking over this from the royals, and then the nurse killed herself, so the bollockings changed to a no blame culture. As for telephone protocols, it's common for nurses and other professionals to answer phones, it's not too hard to find a direct dal number without going through switchboard. It might well be the case that the first nurse put the call through without being too sure if she should, and the second nurse figured that since the call had been put through, it would be OK to answer it. Also, foreign nurses aren't going to pick up on the 'hilarious' accents. The only phone training I got when I worked in a hospital was to use my instincts

[chillicamper]

Why is the hospital not taking any of the blame? Surely staff were trained in telephone protocols.

As for telephone protocols, it's common for nurses and other professionals to answer phones, it's not too hard to find a direct dal number without going through switchboard. It might well be the case that the first nurse put the call through without being too sure if she should, and the second nurse figured that since the call had been put through, it would be OK to answer it. Also, foreign nurses aren't going to pick up on the 'hilarious' accents. The only phone training I got when I worked in a hospital was to use my instincts

I can see how there is a switchboard to the ward in every hospital and having been a patient a few times I know great it is to have an outside line to the world via the nurses. I just can't believe that when the hospital knew that there was such media interest, they did not assign specific cover for answering the phone on the ward and ensure that there were set protocols to check the validity of any caller. They are THE hospital for the Royals aren't they? They must have dealt with situations like this before......or have they just been lucky and got away with it?

[Del]

Lucky.