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Nurse who took prank call from Australian DJ's claiming to be royalty committed suicide.

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Mag
Posts: 8155 - Karma: 14,809
I'm surprised nobody else made a thread about it, if there is one let me know, which is why I waited to see if one popped up.

The story is 2 australian DJ's made a prank call pretending to be prince Charles and the queen, and called up the hospital that Kate Middleton is at(google it if you don't know the story), (it's a pretty funny call if you haven't heard it(regardless of what happened after(I heard it before the death.))) and the nurse puts them through,(although its hardly like you can say fuck off I don't believe you're the queen) and they then get info on how Kate Middleton is.

A couple days later the nurse who accepted the call was found dead. It was later reported she committed suicide, and now the australian DJ's have been suspended, which I don't feel is fair, no matter how sad it is, they didn't do anything, it was a joke.

Sorry for all the brackets.
Dec 9 2012 8:57AM
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Peach.
Posts: 3879 - Karma: 933
Was it actually confirmed that she committed suicide?
Dec 9 2012 9:06AM
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Bateman
Posts: 8590 - Karma: 8,600
yep. family is in shock
Dec 9 2012 9:27AM
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Laurent.
Posts: 10054 - Karma: 25,277
A joke of incredible bad taste actually, to phone in pretending to be someone else to acquire medical information. It was only a matter of time before this kind of thoughtless, childish prank resulted in a tragedy. Not everyone has the brass hide of the smug selfish pranksters. Practical jokes and so called 'pranks' are cruel and not funny for the victim who is generally humiliated, embarrassed and make to look the fool. Giving the lightning speed of the Internet, and the viciousness comments from anonymous bloggers, added to the bragging and smirking of the self congratulatory radio hosts, it is hardly surprising that their stunt backfired.

Every British newspaper had it on the frontpage, to someone like the nurse who isn't used to this kind of attention this can be extremely overwhelming and devastating.

No sympathy for the pranksters, especially now that they are claiming that they themselves need intense counselling.
Dec 9 2012 9:28AM
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ECGove
Posts: 1947 - Karma: 75
Very sad story. Having said that did you hear the audio of the call? It was so clearly not the queen that you have to put some blame on the hospital for putting the call through in the first place.
Dec 9 2012 9:56AM
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yuck
Posts: 8384 - Karma: 2,090
i dont understand how this is worth killing yourself over. at all. she MUST have had other issues in her life. nobody would just straight up kill themselves solely over a radio joke, even if she got playyyyed
Dec 9 2012 10:02AM
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daannnnieel
Posts: 5163 - Karma: 4,293
The lady wasn't very smart, and the dj's were absolute idiots. I have no sympathy for the dj's, but for the woman and her family.
Dec 9 2012 10:05AM
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PlaygroundRapist
Posts: 1307 - Karma: 26
This.

And to anyone wondering how someone can commit suicide over this?

You don't know a thing about her situation, the amount of bad press she got can be absolutely overwhelming when she was just trying to be good.

2 Kids have just lost their mother due to a prank.
Dec 9 2012 10:19AM
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s_a_m
Posts: 916 - Karma: 58
I agree with you for the most part, but how is it bad that the DJs want some therapy after what happened? I would imagine knowing that the nurse died as a result of your actions is pretty rough. It was obviously stupid and they didn't think about the consequences, but they never intended this to happen. Also I think its awful that the DJs didnt respect her medical privacy more, but hospitals should also be a little more careful when handing out information (especially considering who they were dealing with).
Dec 9 2012 10:37AM
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Fonzy.
Posts: 216 - Karma: 30
Pretty sad, and avoidable. But all in all the DJs shouldn't be suspended over a joke.
Dec 9 2012 10:42AM
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Laurent.
Posts: 10054 - Karma: 25,277
They were laughing all after the prank and slamming the nurse down on twitter and their show before she commited suicide. And now when their prank backfires they are pretending to be the victims.

Hell this is what their PR said: ‘We are very concerned for the well-being of our talent. They are very, very distressed. Mel is very vulnerable. She has been vulnerable in the past.
'So we are very concerned about her. She is in a very fragile state and we are concerned for her. We are giving them professional care. They are receiving counselling.’


So Mel is very vulnerable. She has been vulnerable in the past. Shame she couldn't see how anyone else may have been affected the same way by the prank. I find it extremely difficult to have any sympathy for her. Her situation is entirely of her own doing.
Dec 9 2012 10:46AM
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HWW
Posts: 3084 - Karma: 3,436
This is crazy.

• I feel extremely sorry for the nurse
• hospital should have not put the "queen" through so fast, it was obvious that it wasn't her
• radio hosts will be punished enough just by knowing what they caused, in their own minds
Dec 9 2012 10:47AM
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Mag
Posts: 8155 - Karma: 14,809
The fact that they're wanting counselling makes me dislike them.
Dec 9 2012 10:47AM
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Spinoza
Posts: 12763 - Karma: 3,844
The DJ's have no reason to feel bad. They're not responsible for the nurse being so pathetically weak that she kills herself over that.
This is a bullshit story.
Dec 9 2012 10:50AM
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PlaygroundRapist
Posts: 1307 - Karma: 26
You sir are a cunt.
Dec 9 2012 10:52AM
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Spinoza
Posts: 12763 - Karma: 3,844
Nope. That nurse is a pussy and I'm genuinely surprised she's getting sympathy from you guys.
Did you hear the prank call? It was such an insignificant thing. Hardly even funny, and she hardly gave up any serious information. So she was in the newspaper? Big deal fucking grow some balls
Dec 9 2012 10:54AM
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HWW
Posts: 3084 - Karma: 3,436
He has a point. The nurse could have been able to laugh it off and carry on living, but she obviously had something which made her worry about the prank to the extent that she couldn't face living any more.

Think about how you would have laughed about a similar prank if the victim hadn't committed suicide. Are you saying you don't laugh at pranks?

Anyway, vibes to the nurse's family. This is a messed up story.
Dec 9 2012 10:57AM
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PlaygroundRapist
Posts: 1307 - Karma: 26
Click for larger image


Some people are more fragile then others. When you are being called out as a headline on every British newspaper, every newsbroadcast radio or tv, some people can't handle it, especially when she assumed to do the right thing.

It's a tasteless prank, I wasn't laughing before she died.
Dec 9 2012 11:02AM
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Dustin.
Posts: 13839 - Karma: 7,704
Anyone would be incredibly stupid to assume she committed suicide based on a single bad day. That kind of depressive mentality takes a long time to develop.

Also, everything you said was ridiculous and highlights your idiocy. I recommend you go read a book today or otherwise SHUT THE FUCK UP NEXT TIME THE BIG KIDS ARE TALKING. Jesus, I can't believe some of the bullshit I read on here every day.
Dec 9 2012 11:11AM
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yuck
Posts: 8384 - Karma: 2,090
ok we understand it is sad and all, no disrespect to her and its horrible shes dead and all that

but you have to admit that it was all blown outta proportion. this incident was not worth a human life, and since she is the one that took her own life, she is the one who loses. plain and simple. she killed herself over something that we dont find suicide-worthy, her loss. sad sitation, yes. is spinoza being a cunt? no.

i still think that there must have been more adding up to this. as you said, we have no idea what was going on in her head, how her life is, how it got to a point where it was no longer worth living. im sure its complicated.
Dec 9 2012 11:18AM
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Spinoza
Posts: 12763 - Karma: 3,844
So if she was already 'depressed' then it wasnt the fucking DJ's fault that she killed herself was it? you dont say that the very last swing of the ax was responsible for the whole tree falling down.
If we're going to change the discussion to 'why wasnt this depressed nurse given help which may have prevented her from committing suicide given some mildly embarrassing event' then we may as well make a thread for everyone who commits suicide because this story is no longer relevant.

*insert series of insults into my post to make my arguments more convincing^*
Dec 9 2012 11:22AM
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Miomo
Posts: 4302 - Karma: 14,131
It's obvious that the call had nearly nothing to do with the suicide. It was just the last of the smallest of steps to throw her over.
Dec 9 2012 11:35AM
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Hoppy
Posts: 685 - Karma: 95
So say she didn't commit suicide, do you think its right to humiliate two nurses, put their jobs at risk and put them through several investigations (hospital, nurses union etc). And have the ultimate aim of your prank call, an ill woman (future queen or not).
Dec 9 2012 12:47PM
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pmw
Posts: 5760 - Karma: 829
fuck off man
Dec 9 2012 12:52PM
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panojibber.
Posts: 1041 - Karma: 683
This is a perfect example of why everyone needs to pay less attention to the royal family.
Found a transcript of the phone call:

I don't think you can possibly blame this on the DJs, this was absolutely harmless.
Its sad but the nurse clearly wasn't mentally stable to kill herself because of something like this.
Dec 9 2012 12:57PM
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joshua
Posts: 5046 - Karma: 1,280
Yes, because you know exactly what she was like and what was going on in her life.

You people have no idea.
Dec 9 2012 12:58PM
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Hoppy
Posts: 685 - Karma: 95
Ah cool, glad thats sorted then.
Dec 9 2012 1:09PM
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.AR6rider.
Posts: 15976 - Karma: 8,799
I don't know how it is over the pond, but giving out information on a patient over the phone here is a pretty huge violation of HIPAA, and the nurse would almost surely lose her job and have a hard time finding a new one. I don't know the full story, and I'm not suggesting the nurse was right in killing herself, but she probably thought she was going to lose absolutely everything she worked for over a prank phone call. For all we know, she could have had some underlying depression or something also, and this was the last straw.
Dec 9 2012 1:18PM
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RickAstley
Posts: 953 - Karma: 32
Here's the call for anyone who hasn't heard it



here is the link if the embed doesn't work, I can't find the old embed code so it probably won't:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmS8JwyRUdk
Dec 9 2012 1:30PM
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yuck
Posts: 8384 - Karma: 2,090
basis of this thread:

australians are all pieces of shit and this is all their fault.

sound good?
Dec 9 2012 1:33PM
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NinetyFour
Posts: 8650 - Karma: 13,409
http://m.extratv.com/entry/view/id/167642?bg=500

Just going to leave that in here for discussion. Curious as to what you guys think.
Dec 9 2012 1:42PM
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annex_
Posts: 1659 - Karma: 1,499
she didn't even give out any information. all she said was that she was in bed resting and taking fluids which you'd expect if she wasn't able to eat and keep anything down. It wasn't even a good prank call
Dec 9 2012 1:43PM
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volvotom
Posts: 2045 - Karma: 712
This didn't happen in America, not bound by our laws.
Dec 9 2012 1:53PM
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Hoppy
Posts: 685 - Karma: 95
No, Aussies are cool (cept on Australia day in Whistler).

Prank calls on the radio are shit, always have been. Humiliating nurses and putting their jobs at risk is pretty low.
Dec 9 2012 1:54PM
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yuck
Posts: 8384 - Karma: 2,090
yeah there was some implied sarcasm there
Dec 9 2012 1:57PM
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.AR6rider.
Posts: 15976 - Karma: 8,799
I know, that's why I said I don't know how it works over there.
Dec 9 2012 1:58PM
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saskskier
Posts: 4772 - Karma: 9,984
Do you know any nurses? If you do, you will know that any given moment on any given day they have roughly 3 million things on the go. Anyone who thinks it's funny to waste a nurses time is an idiot.
Dec 9 2012 2:02PM
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Hoppy
Posts: 685 - Karma: 95
Ah shit, yeah. Anyway no time for reading other peoples posts correctly, im on a crusade!
Dec 9 2012 2:10PM
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ECGove
Posts: 1947 - Karma: 75
They had to go through a hospital switchboard first dude. So they had to convince someone else at the hospital that they were the queen before they got transferred to that specific ward. And when it comes to royalty, I'm sure they get their own private nurses round the clock.
Dec 9 2012 2:21PM
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joly.sp
Posts: 2305 - Karma: 585
Absolutely awful that she is dead but this is not the dj's fault. The woman had other problems obviously, they probably feel bad enough that they attributed in any way to it.

The nurse should have thought of her children growing up without a mother before she did this. No matter how bad she thought her life was she should have been there for her kids. Counselling or whatever she needed to get through her problems, suicide is never the answer.
Dec 9 2012 2:23PM
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Miomo
Posts: 4302 - Karma: 14,131
So you think that she killed herself just because of this call? You're such a fucking idiot.
Dec 9 2012 2:27PM
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joshua
Posts: 5046 - Karma: 1,280
I don't have a clue what her life situation was, I just think its stupid how plenty of people in this thread think they have it all figured out. We don't know anything about this person.

Also, as people have already pointed out, it was blew up to be much more than "just a phone call"

-She was ridiculed on the radio, and it made the front page of many newspapers
-She may have jeoprodized her job by giving out info on the phone.



Dec 9 2012 4:16PM
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volvotom
Posts: 2045 - Karma: 712
I thought I read somewhere that she wasn't in any trouble as a result of the call.

Sad situation for all regardless.
Dec 9 2012 6:50PM
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Alex_G
Posts: 11902 - Karma: 1,018
that nurse needed to...


Dec 9 2012 6:55PM
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HWW
Posts: 3084 - Karma: 3,436
I also have no idea how it is in the US, but even if someone had wanted to get her fired for what she gave out, surely they would have been understanding that you would respond differently if you had the Princess in your care and you thought you were speaking to the Queen.
Dec 9 2012 7:00PM
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Phil-X-
Posts: 7205 - Karma: 14,399
DJs- They only made a prank call, I dont think they are in the wrong at all. I also think their whole "being fragile" now and counseling is bullshit; most likely being done so they look sympathetic.

Nurse- Jesus christ, kill yourself over something relatively insignificant? It would get blown over in the news within 10 days had she not killed herself. Now there are 2 motherless kids, 2 "depressed DJs" and a whole fucking tragedy for the country of Britain.... da fuck.
Dec 9 2012 7:05PM
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rzarector
Posts: 590 - Karma: 70
this thread is full of fuck.
-nobody should kill themselves over a prank, and if that is the only reason she did it then I don't feel bad.
-the dj's should feel bad, they are indirectly at fault
-there are much bigger problems going on right now. kids are killing themselves by the dozens over bullying and you pretentious fucks are worried about a questionably qualified nursed killing herself over 1 prank call? get over yourselves, if this weren't international news none of you would give two squirts of piss. but I guess that's why it's international news, isn't it?

it is very sad for her family however, and I feel terrible for them.
Dec 9 2012 7:06PM
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Amadeus.
Posts: 3050 - Karma: 382
Oh God, what a bunch of nonsensical drivel being spewed in this thread.

People make prank calls all the time and if you listen to the tape it is not even malicious and nothing came out of it. No mistake was made by the nurse and it wasn't even that funny of a call. If you kill yourself over something like that it is your fault and yours alone. No one can blame the Dj's for doing something DJ's do all the time.

If there is any blame to be cast on anyone other than the suicide victim it should be put on the media and tabloids for making a mountain out of a mole hill.
Dec 9 2012 7:11PM
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eheath
Posts: 61100 - Karma: 118,256
That's it? I don't understand, there had to be more going on in this nurses life. I feel like the DJs are being blamed for this and that is not the right thing. Harmless call? Yes.

IMO i think what they did really was not the main cause of the suicide. Its a very sad story and its also very upsetting to me that the DJs are getting so much shit for this. Classic modern day media, this story shouldn't even be a headline. Thousands of people commit suicide every year and its only focused on this particular one because its involving celebrities. I wish news stations would focus on real news, not the very tragic suicide of a nurse and trying to blame it on a harmless prank.

This story might be notable, but god damn its been on the news for days. I think more questions need to be asked before we just blame the DJs.
Dec 9 2012 7:12PM
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rzarector
Posts: 590 - Karma: 70
no not really. what I meant by this is that they shouldn't feel bad, but they will. It's really not their fault that the nurse they called happened to be oversensitive/unstable, but even still if I knew that my prank call was the final nail in someone's casket I couldn't help but feel a little bad. but the responsibility shouldn't be on them.
Dec 9 2012 7:17PM
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Phil-X-
Posts: 7205 - Karma: 14,399
.

Especially

If there is any blame to be cast on anyone other than the suicide victim it should be put on the media and tabloids for making a mountain out of a mole hill.
Dec 9 2012 7:20PM
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