Dreadful story - prank nurse found dead

Linky

"The nurse who took the crank call of two Sydney DJs asking questions about the Duchess of Cambridge’s health has been found dead and is suspected to have killed herself.

Jacintha Saldanha, a 46-year-old mother of two, was found unconscious near the King Edward VII Hospital where Kate spent three nights earlier this week being treated for pregnancy-related vomiting.

Two crews of ambulance officers tried to revive her but she died at the scene and police said her death was unexplained but not suspicious.

The Sydney 2Day FM presenters who made the prank-call, Mel Greig and Michael Christian, have been taken off the air and told not to comment."

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Dreadful stuff. Shocking for the lady's family. The two radio hosts must be devastated. They said they were amazed their call got so far and that the nurse didn't pick their extremely dodgy accents.

I love breakfast radio but I have always maintained over the years prank calls go too far and I find them so uncomfortable I switch stations.

A bit selfish to kill herself leaving a hubby and 2 motherless kids.

I wonder if someone at the hospital had had a go at her.

nothing will happen to the radio show hosts, as all the Kyle stunts have shown that the Radio/Communications authority is as weak as piss.

Paul Keating wrote:I love breakfast radio but I have always maintained over the years prank calls go too far and I find them so uncomfortable I switch stations.

Agree 100% Ponts. I find prank calls very cringeworthy.

JGK wrote:A bit selfish to kill herself leaving a hubby and 2 motherless kids.

I wonder if someone at the hospital had had a go at her.

I don't think there's any doubt that she copped some lip from her bosses and/or her co-workers.

That kind of stunt has been unoriginal since Candid Camera and unfunny since long before then....but try saying so without somebody invoking PCGM!!!! and the Thought Police.

And the station passes PR 101 with flying colors: issue the standard Claytons apology and find somebody to distance themselves from and hang out to dry.

I'm guessing it might be the last prank call either of the hosts ever tries again.

skully wrote:

JGK wrote:A bit selfish to kill herself leaving a hubby and 2 motherless kids.

I wonder if someone at the hospital had had a go at her.

I don't think there's any doubt that she copped some lip from her bosses and/or her co-workers.

Yet the radio People will cop all the blame.

From what I have heard at least, I don't think the two people or station concerned should necessarily be charged with anything but complete airheadedness (a la Beavis and Butthead, *snigger snigger snigger*) and cheap'n'crappy airwave filling, in place of anything better, more substantial, more entertaining, or of any quality.


But:

JGK: Was "pretty selfish" meant as some sort of black humour?

Sitting on a no doubt comfortable seat, far away from the crucible of the event and its repercussions, it's far too easy to pass judgment on such events.

No, I don't know either exactly what may have driven the woman to kill herself (if it is as it seems to be). Neither her personal circumstances, nor the stresses she may have been under, nor her mental robustness.


But to me, a first reaction of casting stones at the dead, in complete ignorance of the circumstances, hardly seems very droll ... or a sign of any great wisdom or insight .... or for that matter, sympathy for her family.

And from someone who appears to claim superior knowledge on what "being on this planet" is all about!

There's an old saying "I think nothing human alien to me." (Nihil humani mihi alienum puto.")

But your words seem from another planet altogether.

skully wrote:I'm guessing it might be the last prank call either of the hosts ever tries again.

Most likely true, whereas if it had been Kyle or some other bigger fry than this pair of WTF's he'd be back on air after Christmas at the latest. But in many ways that's not the point at issue. Besides spin-docing and bluster, what real changes to programming guidelines are being made?

If whoever does the breakfast show as from Monday morning ever pulls a similar prank call, we know the station is not serious.

It was reported that she had to put up with a lot barbs in the press too along too lambasting her inability to see through a lame attempt at imitation. Given what a high profile stunt it was and the potential for repercussions it's not hard to understand how embarrassed she might have been.

It's time people under these circumstances considered the possible effects of their hijinks.

Pranks that involve emergency services should be off limits.

I watch the Chaser and like it. But their APEC 2007 stunt was simply crazy. Harmless? Well their stunt took resources and attention away from the real security who need to be worrying about the real criminals.

Sage, Ponts.

Very sad ending to a not particularly funny, or original prank.

If brains were explosives, they couldn't blow their own hats off. Unfortunately,it's not yet a crime to be a complete sploob, so I'm with PCS - it's hard to see how they, or their station can actually be charged with anything specific.

I see nothing gained by wishing them sufferring for life, but hopefully they will at least reflect on their actions and they, among others, will perhaps consider possible consequenses of such actions.

I'd have thought it obvious that the nurse would face huge embarrassment at the very least, and that would make most normal people decide against doing such a thing.

I thought at the time it was a pretty juvenile & tasteless prank.

PeterCS wrote:From what I have heard at least, I don't think the two people or station concerned should necessarily be charged with anything but complete airheadedness (a la Beavis and Butthead, *snigger snigger snigger*) and cheap'n'crappy airwave filling, in place of anything better, more substantial, more entertaining, or of any quality.


But:

JGK: Was "pretty selfish" meant as some sort of black humour?

Sitting on a no doubt comfortable seat, far away from the crucible of the event and its repercussions, it's far too easy to pass judgment on such events.

No, I don't know either exactly what may have driven the woman to kill herself (if it is as it seems to be). Neither her personal circumstances, nor the stresses she may have been under, nor her mental robustness.


But to me, a first reaction of casting stones at the dead, in complete ignorance of the circumstances, hardly seems very droll ... or a sign of any great wisdom or insight .... or for that matter, sympathy for her family.

And from someone who appears to claim superior knowledge on what "being on this planet" is all about!

There's an old saying "I think nothing human alien to me." (Nihil humani mihi alienum puto.")

But your words seem from another planet altogether.

Just saw this. I don't want to turn this thread into a debate on semantics but let me explain it to you:

Killing yourself when you have a loving husband and 2 children is, on any measure, a selfish thing to do. It says that you are willing to ruin the lives of the people closest to you because you yourself can't bear your life as it is and aren't prepared to stick through what is inevitably a temporary situation.

For someone who, it seems from all the reports, is a great nurse (a calling which itself means that you put others needs ahead of your own), a loving mother and wife, sister-in-law and so on, and a popular college, it doesn't seem logical that mere embarrassment would drive you to ruining the lives of those you love.

So my suggestion was whether it was more that the embarrassment of falling for the prank and the breach of protocol. That is, was she personally unofficially slammed by her colleagues, the hospital, press, royal family - whatever to a point where over and above the embarrassment of it all, she thought that she no longer had a job, career or something worse. I don't know. But the comments from the hospital that she hadn't been warned and had been supported do sound a bit empty.

skully seemed to get the point of my (shorthand) post so maybe you will too.

As for the case, I tend to agree with Peter Fitzsimons: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/a-tragedy-but-who-is-at-fault-20121208-2b29q.html

Growler wrote:Very sad ending to a not particularly funny, or original prank.

If brains were explosives, they couldn't blow their own hats off. Unfortunately,it's not yet a crime to be a complete sploob, so I'm with PCS - it's hard to see how they, or their station can actually be charged with anything specific.

I see nothing gained by wishing them sufferring for life, but hopefully they will at least reflect on their actions and they, among others, will perhaps consider possible consequenses of such actions.

I'd have thought it obvious that the nurse would face huge embarrassment at the very least, and that would make most normal people decide against doing such a thing.

This sums it up well. If these presenters had thought of the consequences of the prank BEFORE they did it, they could at least assume that the person who answered the phone would later be subjected to intense humiliation. Being embarrassed in front of an audience of millions cant be a good feeling at all. I can imagine it leading to humiliation, then depression, and then....well we've seen what came next.

What would we say if one of the radio pranksters were so overwhelmed by the recent public finger-pointing and perhaps guilt that they topped themselves?

I'm not defending their utter stupidity - just pointing out that it's common, and that there's an audience for their idiocy, or this sort of stunt wouldn't happen. The audience that LOL's at the original stunt is as culpable as the radio presenters that cater to it.

JGK: Depressed people aren't logical. There isn't even a skerrick of hope in the bottom of the glass; they believe that their loved ones are better off without them. It's not selfishness.

Well, these presenters will now have to live with a feeling of guilt for the rest of their lives, which will be an awful punishment. I'd be surprised if either of them return to being radio DJs again.

I agree. I hope amongst the criticism they are enduring there is someone that is looking out for them. Yes, they stuffed up, they were idiots, but it's not their fault that the poor nurse committed suicide. Like all disasters, many things have to live up (Swiss cheese model) for the full disaster to unfold.

And I think a lot of the anger directed towards the presenters is due to them allegedly still boasting about the prank AFTER it had been reported that the woman had killed herself.

I'd give them the benefit of the doubt though and say that there was a period of a few hours where the news simply hadn't filtered through to them yet, and their first reaction might not have been to immediately delete their Twitter accounts.

JGK: I'm glad you explained that, since it makes your viewpoint clearer, and easier to understand.

I still can't quite see how you are in a position to condemn the nurse for her (apparent) suicide - which was what came through as your strikingly terse (hence "alien") first response.

The reasons I can't see it, are the ones I tried to put forward above.

The strikingly harsh verdict "selfishness" presupposes sufficient balance of mind, a happy family circle and supportive husband, a set of psychological resources, etc. ...... do you know all of these are given?

And how does a charge of (her) selfishness help those surviving family members you were thinking of?


As for Peter Fitzsimons - it's easy for a bloody sports columnist & ageing hippy to say whatever he likes!

Seriously, he carries no responsibility for his words, other than a responsibility to his employers not to be done for libel.

As far as the remaining deleterious effects of deference in British society (and other societies) towards the Royals is concerned, that far I would agree.

But to get your rocks off on a fair-dinkum-ocker populist line is pretty easy copy to run too. He is just redirecting a blame culture, offering no explanation.


My own view on the radio station's antics was above. No criminality involved - just an inanity that outBeavisnButtheads BeavisnButthead.

Henry wrote:And I think a lot of the anger directed towards the presenters is due to them allegedly still boasting about the prank AFTER it had been reported that the woman had killed herself.

Certainly hadn't heard that; I suspect as you go on to explain that any misguided gloating done was done before the news of her suicide had reached them. Impossible to conceive otherwise, really; surely no-one could be that vile?

Peter Fitzsimons is an English Monarchy hating twat. Someone could murder the Queen in cold blood and he'd probably still find a way to turn it into an argument about how Australia should get rid of the Union Jack in its flag.