Remorse over death of nurse, caused by a hoax.

By : Forum Moderator
Published 10th December 2012 |
Read latest comment - 11th December 2012

I guess everyone already knows about this, 2 DJ's from Aus decided to prank call the hospital that was taking care of the Duchess of Cambridge. 3 days ago, one of the nurses was found dead. She had apparently committed suicide.

Mrs Saldanha was found dead on Friday, three days after taking the hoax call. Mel Greig and Michael Christian wept as they said "not a minute goes by where we don't think about her family".

here

Apparently talks are currently underway between NSW police and Scotland Yard about what happened and Mrs. Saldanha's death is being investigated. maybe somehow, it will give her family some relief knowing that everything possible was done to find out why she passed on, and if there was any foul play involved.

An inquest into the apparent suicide is due to be opened this week.
The DJs responsible have been taken off air and are receiving counselling.
Southern Cross Austereo, owner of 2Day FM, held an emergency board meeting on Sunday, but made no comment afterwards.
It has suspended all advertising on the station until Monday, while DJs Mel Greig and Michael Christian are on indefinite leave.

also from the BBC here

It is astonishing to see that something that at first was not meant to do any harm could get to this point so quickly, and should show how dangerous prank calling could really be.
Do you think anything should be done to/with/about the 2 DJ's, other than suspending them indefinitely for what they did? Or do you think its just a tragic turn of events that could have been avoided by not playing the prank?

My thoughts and prayers go out to her family, this cannot be easy for them, and I would also like to congratulate the happy parents to be at the same time

Thanks,
Dreamraven
Comments
Obviously it's tragic that the nurse took her life, but I doubt it was all because of the prank call. It may have been the straw that broke the camels back, but no doubt there there was a lot more going on behind the scenes.

It's the irony of the UK media who are in the usual hysteria mode, witch hunting the presenters, who may well have a legal case to answer. But the UK media can hardly grab the moral high ground when it comes to destroying peoples lives, albeit in the name of a prank, poor journalism or old fashioned sensationalism to sell a few more papers.

How many suicides from innocent people can directly be attributed to the media, who knows, but I'll bet there will be a few

Steve Richardson
Gaffer of My Local Services
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I don't think anything should happen to the DJ's, they just front the radio show, there is a host of production staff behind them that produce the show and these types of pranks have been going on for years Steve Penk has been doing these type of wind up calls for years, it works and it is entertainment. But even he does not do it on his own, the researchers and production team all play a part in producing that telephone call. I think the 2 DJ's are being used as scapegoats and until there is a full coroners hearing no one will know. It may well be that the hospital involved threatened her with disciplinary action for not following the correct protocol because they had a Royal onsite... Who knows, she would have been aware the following day that it was a prank, Prince Charles excepted it as a prank. So I think there is more to this than a couple of DJ's making a wind up call.

Thanks,
Barney

I agree. The posts kept going on and on about the humiliation of the two nurses and that the two DJ's were responsible for it, but nothing was mentioned about the rest of the team.
Which shouldn't be I think. They should have the whole team under investigation and not just the two DJs.

Maybe the media made more noise than necessary about the prank, I mean the news stations here were talking about it days after it happened, even replaying the prank call so that we could hear it. I have to agree that it couldn't have been just the prank call that made her take her life. She has a hubby and 2 kids, one prank call shouldn't be enough to get her to the point of doing it.

Do you think the media should be blamed instead of the DJ's?

Thanks,
Dreamraven

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