Nurse Who Took Australian DJs Prank Call Has Committed Suicide

It’s heartbreaking, but the poor woman was probably getting harassed, and may have even been getting death threats over it. She may have seen suicide as the only way to protect her family from further harm as a result of her mistake.

I think things like this are deplorable. I do not think calling a hospital trying to get personal information on celebrities is “cool” or “funny” and it is the ones who are duped who pay. Always. I am delighted these two douche bags will be finished.

I go through radio-listening phases every now and again (I like to keep up with what the kids are into). Just got over one, in fact… abruptly. The local hip-hop station here in Seattle has a new morning DJ crew, and said crew includes a fake personality named “Carmen”, a Latina voice who sounds like she sucks helium and makes terribly boring prank calls using misplaced, not at all humorous vulgarity.

I’ve never shut the radio off so quickly in my life.

and it’s not even like it was really a mistake on her part. she was deceived.

This actually went through my head. I don’t think you could ever get emergency personnel to go in on this with you, but it would have been a fabulous get-even prank if key people were in-the-know. This is kind of like bullying in a way, no? A different level of it, I understand, but still.

What if it’s just an enormous prank to get back at the douchebag dj’s? One that goes all the way up to the royal family?

Poor woman.

Yeah. I loved their whole defense of “we didn’t expect to actually be put through!” BULLSHIT. The entire point of the prank call was the longshot hope that exactly that would happen. If they had expected and hoped to merely be hung up on, they would have ended the call when it was transferred to the nurse. Instead, they continued the call, and then chose to air it on their show. I’m thoroughly pleased with the backlash; I only hope that if/when they lose their jobs, they aren’t able to ride their notoriety to anything worthwhile down the road.

Athena, we are packing up our house as we speak to move to Everett. Maybe we could meet one day when we get up there and debate in person over adult drinks for a girls night.

Yeah, I believe this is true ’cause, Marilyn Monroe committed suicide, too. She never had an affair with Kennedy. And, Elvis really died on the toilet. Not because his CIA cover was blown. And, you can bet Jim Morrison is really buried in France.

Sadly, ‘she’ (I use parentheses because Carmen is actually a comically cross dressed male) is not confined to Seattle, they feature her in South Texas as well. I recall one where she called a dog walking service and asked if they could walk her son because he was fat, and they threatened calling CPS. I fail to see the humor in any of that.

Done, just sent it. I have lived up in Whidbey before but never really made it off the island much. I will find myself with a lot of extra time on my hands in a few months since hubby is going to deploy. It would be nice to hold a conversation with someone who actually has a brain cell or two. It’s getting harder, and harder to find.

I cannot help, but think that there was more going on with this nurse than we know – although people seem to look a the royal twats as something more that rich and spoiled dinosaurs (as can be witnessed by the extent of the public backlash which is probably more about the incubating Duchess than the poor nurse and her family).

Sometimes tactics like these DJs are funny, but involving another person’s private healthcare? Not so much…

So maybe they need to think about implementing some sort of password system in case of royalty or celebrities are staying. It would help the hospital make sure they are talking to the person they say they are, but also it would improve prank calls so much, hearing them asking if Porridge’s operation went okay. Not to mention the chuckles the nurses could get from hearing the queen ask if Store Cupboard had a good night’s sleep.

As much as this sounds like a set up, perhaps the nurse was dealing more with her personal life than any of us have known. The prank call could just have been the tip of the iceberg to send her over the edge.

they used to have her on an old station here in houston called the party. when i read what you wrote i could actually hear “her” saying, “hellooo, this is carmen, i believe we were disconnected”… lmao

Shoot me NOW. O.o

This makes me want to start quoting Donnie Baker I swear to god it does.

I am pretty sure that I read somewhere that it was the nurse that forwarded the call to another nurse that killed herself. The other nurse, the one that gave all the info is still alive. Although both breached a shit-ton of confidentiality policies.

The part I don’t understand about the call ever having been put through is that the accents were God-awful. If you’re a British subject, you know the voice of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles, just the way Americans know the President’s voice without having to see him. Having heard the prank call, the voices and accents aren’t even close. I’m not blaming the poor thing, it must have been hectic as all hell at that reception desk with the baby news just being released and all. It just struck me as odd that neither nurse could tell that it wasn’t the Queen of Prince Charles.

“Shock jocks” stink, are largely unfunny, and are overwhelmingly untalented in my limited experience. But in all fairness, who could have expected that the prank call here lead to a suicide? Seems to me that to blame this poor woman’s death on a lame hoax call goes a bit too far.

Oh come the fuck on. The nurse should have known that patient confidentiality are not things you discuss over the phone when the caller could be anyone, especially concerning someone “famous”. Making her look stupid didn’t cause her suicide, she clearly had a miserable life and didn’t see her husband or kids worth staying around for, and if she DID do it solely from making a dumb mistake, that’s her own damn fault. Gotta shift the blame to everyone just because she offed herself. Obviously the hosts didn’t do this solely for her to kill herself over. She had a family but apparently being embarrassed was more strong of a feeling. It’s sad that she let her one fuck up end her life, but that is NO ONE’S fault but her own. Did the DJs tell her to go kill herself? Did they pull the trigger/hang the noose/swallow the pills/whatever? No. She did this of her own accord. Everyone has obviously been on HER side since the get-go, there was no reason for her to end her life just because she gave private information away on the phone.. OF HER OWN ACCORD. SHE fucked up, and in turn SHE CHOSE to end her life. Don’t blame anyone else.

We can’t pin the blame on the DJ who made the prank call. People need to grow up and find out why the nurse may have done that in the first place, not blame a prank caller. I’m sick of people always trying to blame people for their own problems and failures, if you kill yourself it only means there is something wrong with you. It solves nothing to try to blame other people. We should be figuring out why the nurse killed herself in the first place because the problem lies in her (or him). People who think like you are weak and will die out because of their weakness. They fail to find the cure for the sickness and will die of the same exact illness the nurse had.

She’s not a native Brit, she was born/raised/lived in India until 36 (with some time spend in the Middle East) and moved to the UK ten years ago.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2244999/Tributes-nurse-Jacintha-Saldanha-committed-suicide-transferring-prank-Australian-DJs.html

Try actually reading the article next time, Thanks for your input.

That’s the only thing I can think of. I can’t really see how the DJ’s are directly to blame. Yeah the prank was stupid, yeah they probably have done worse (as stated in the articles most morning radio DJ’s suck…). But I feel like I am the only one who’s just not ready to get my lynch rope for those two. Poor choices all around, and it’s sad the lady thought that was her only option.

I kind of blame this ridiculous obsession with two of the most boring people in the planet. Seriously, inbred royalty blood and some boring brunette wwooooo? Let it go people.

I have always hated when these stupid radio stations did prank calls. It’s not funny.

How the princess was doing was private info

Sure, but the woman who committed suicide did not give that info out. She merely transferred the call to the nurse who did. Again, had you read the article…

She’s a Duchess.

You should look into her family’s culture. It’s the cause of her death.

I stopped being angry with the DJs once I read this four or five times: the nurse who TRANSFERRED the phone call killed herself. Not the nurse who gave out private/medical info, but the person who merely transferred the call. Not sure, but sounds like she’s a mental case…like many of us. I can only hope she’s finally found her peace. :-/

I just about peed myself from laughing, thanks! hahah

And, it’s a current penile colony. Anyone that’s played online poker with ‘em knows that they’re a bunch ‘o dicks.

… you were acting like a TOTAL bitch sooo…

Hypocrite much?

Then I guess its time we stopped paying for trashy low life stuff like that to be broadcasted on our radios. We are as much to blame for supporting such shows.

My point was that we can’t blame it all on the DJ because of what the nurse did, that is unreasonable. In fact if I were the DJ I would know in my mind that it wasn’t really my fault, it was just a prank, and people shouldn’t take their life so seriously. The nurse probably had a whole lot of stress and emotional problems which the prank triggered to happen; she was probably going to kill her/himself anyways even without the prank. There was something wrong with the nurse, it wasn’t the pranks fault.

That’s not being heartless that’s just the truth. The nurse should not have done that, she was not at fault for anything, it was a joke. That’s not being heartless. You’re the one being heartless to the DJ and radio station, so pull the log from your eye. It was just a joke. Grow up. People act like hateful little kids always accusing someone else for their own problems.

I guess I’m one of the few who like a few morning DJs (bob and sherri being my fave)…mostly because I have a long commute every morning, our free sirius radio just got cancelled (came with the new car), and music puts me to sleep while driving. I have mixed feelings on this…I’m so sorry this woman felt suicide was the only answer. But yeah, this was just a prank…and until her suicide, a lot of sites found it funny. I cannot imagine how just a prank was so horrible that she could consider leaving her kids without a mother…I have to wonder if she already had an issue with depression. Note, I’m not blaming her so much for suicide…I’ve had situations like this in my family and have dealt with personal issues of depression, and yes, while it’s a selfish act, I understand how dark depression can be. But I still wonder if it was the prank alone, or if she already had an issue. Anyway, I don’t think the backlash for the djs is deserved either…they wouldn’t have had any idea it would result in a suicide, and again, people found it funny until this tragedy. And honestly, while I don’t know what sort of HIPAA type laws they have in Europe, I put blame on their medical field for this…they should be providing better privacy training to their staff. The call should never have made it through, and if they had proper laws and rules in place, and proper training on them, I seriously think this nurse, being as good a nurse as she obviously was, would never have patched the call through.

Uh, you can keep your blame. I haven’t listened to and consequently supported commercial radio in over a decade. In part thanks to moronic radio DJs like these two who chased after the lowest common denominator.

You really believe that every single person suffering from suicidal tendencies will still kill themselves regardless of what external stimuli they are subjected to? Every single bullied kid that offs themselves in despair would have done the same in the absence of bullying? I don’t really know what to say to that. People commit suicide for a variety of reasons, trying to boil it all down to “they’re just broken” and disregarding the circumstances strikes me as incredibly thoughtful.

It was just a joke, right? So, if they’d called and wasted some nurse’s time on a prank in the middle of someone’s medical emergency, and led to that patient’s death, who’s fault would that be? Calling a hospital in the hopes of causing some random stranger to accidentally violate the law and then broadcasting it for laughs and ratings is fine, so why not call in some bomb threats and laugh at the authorities’ and public’s reaction to it?

This station has a history of complaints, for “jokes” and whatnot that clearly cross the line. So if I’m being heartless by insisting they be held accountable (and I’m not just blaming the DJs for this, as they’re new hires – I’m saving most of my blame for the executives and lawyers who gave this the green light) then so be it. I’d rather heartlessly blame the people who have a history of stunts and jokes of extremely poor taste than the innocent, hard-working stranger who became the butt of one of their jokes. But it’s ironic that you’re insisting that I grow up, when you are the one defending adults with a puerile sense of humor and lacking in basic decency.

Um @Wolf_of_Mars:disqus that would be “penal” colony. The word “penile” refers to the penis. Pun intended? Thank you for the guilt I now feel for snorting in laughter at your typo. One minute I’m feeling teary eyed over how this poor woman’s children and family are feeling, next minute laughing. DD at it’s best.

Do they have recent immigrants working in the CIA? If they do, perhaps you would get put through. You are expecting someone whose English is only he second or third language to smell – or perhaps rather *hear* – a rat.

I dunno what you’ve heard about me, but hentai isn’t my thing.

I’d really like to know how these rumors start. Oh wait. I start em, for funsies.

I’m not a native Brit either, been here for 12 years, but i sure as hell know the difference between a British accent and a godawful Australian-pretending-to-be-English accent. Not to mention that India used to be English and some of that still seems to carry through – some of them have a posher English accent than a BBC news anchor.

You are a native English-speaker, though? Not certain whether this Indian nurse was brought up in an English-speaking community. Even if she was, it could be quite a different English from what you or I know, making it harder for her to tell posh from scam-posh. Or she could simply have been in possession of less of an ear for the nuances of the language. Maybe she was simply worried about being thought disrespectful towards the Royal family by challenging the callers? Or she could be at the end of a 12 hour shift and with her head swimming at the time?

No, i’m not a native English speaker. I have found though after 12 years in a different country that i’m starting to think and even dream more in English than my native Dutch. Although for some reason i still count in Dutch
But then again, i am completely immersed in English. It is entirely possible that the lady in question only spoke English at her job and not at home with her family. I think if i had to guess i’d probably say she didn’t dare question the supposed queen.

I agree… While it is sad she felt suicide was her only option it one wonder what else was going in her life that she went down that road.

As already stated, she is not the princess, and the woman who committed suicide did not give out any personal info.

alright , not to shabby! when can we meet? lol

Was trying to avoid the news coverage of this, because the death seems so effing pointless and I have no patience with people trying to cover their arses in a million different ways. However, It would appear the nurse in question lived in Bristol. Even though King Edward VII’s Hospital is within walking distance of Paddington Station (probably about 15 minutes’ brisk walk), that means she had at least an hour and a half to work by fast train and goodness knows how far to bus/walk/whatever at the other end. Add to that the shift-work most nurses have and try to juggle that with a young family……..

WTF is wrong with you? I mean, seriously, I would like to know because you make some of the most asinine statements I have ever seen. I am just boggled.

I noticed you’re natively Dutch so I’m going to point something interesting out to you about accents. I’m Canadian..have a distinct western Canadian accent (or so people tell me, I myself refuse to believe I have an accent ). I’ve been living in The Netherlands for 3 years now and I can’t even begin to tell you how often people here ask if I’m a Brit. Which leaves me utterly stupefied how they confuse the two englishes. I sound NOTHING like a Brit.

British english is taught here in school, yet people fail to pick up on the fact I don’t use any British words- I chalk that up to the internet and everyone using american english on it. What confuses me even more is that on 80%+ of the tv channels it’s american english shows, there are also british channels..there’s more english on Dutch tv then Dutch, so there’s plenty of chance to hear how each is spoken, yet people still confuse them. I fully expected to be confused as an American (which has never happened) but never as a Brit.

My theory, people don’t really listen to accents. They hear the accent but don’t listen to it wondering if they have a ‘real’ accent for what language they are speaking. They pay attention to what’s being said. Like you said, tons of foreigners have better accents then the natives. Plenty of people here have horrid accents, even in Dutch, and some of those people are natively Dutch. I happen to pick up on the accents here really well because I can’t understand some of the accents as well as I can others :/

Not defending or trying to be snappy, just throwing it out there that people are deaf when it comes to accents