Royal Baby

Its civil law not criminal, so its about getting compensation not justice.

What is?

Your quote on nervous shock.

I draw a parallel with Dr David Kelly the quiet scientist who allegedly committed suicide when thrust into the media spotlight over Iraq and this nurse finding herself in the full glare of the media.

Public pranksters and jokers are always "devastated" when their japes go wrong but they earn their living doing it because like journalists they invoke  "public interest" . I don't believe there is wide interest in pranks but clearly it takes all sorts. It is no different to a journalist creating a story out of nothing. 

Probably the big idea of Australia becoming a republic after Queen Elizabeth's death will feed this sort of thing. 

But the nurse wasn't in the full glare of the media. She only became known after her death.

It's all very sad but I don't think the pranksters can be blamed. I sense there are other factors at play in the poor woman's life or work that we don't know about.

What Muttley said.

There is no way on earth that this prank was the sole cause of this woman's death and the pranksters thenselves can't possibly be held reponsible for what happened.

Interestingly, there was a case reported last week where an inquest ruled that a girl who had got into trouble at school for being drunk - and actually still was drunk - died after falling from a motorway bridge. It was ruled it a suicide but her parents (who presumably know her better) want it changed to misadventure because they don't believe she would have reacted so extremely.

Muttley wrote (see)

But the nurse wasn't in the full glare of the media. She only became known after her death.

It's all very sad but I don't think the pranksters can be blamed. I sense there are other factors at play in the poor woman's life or work that we don't know about.

Sorry, my point being what this poor woman feared was about to happen.

Probably the positive will be that the privacy of the nurse that actually divulged the details will be preserved. Surely the press post Lord Leveson will not publish?

Both nurses will have been disciplined or at least severely spoken to (despite the kind words now being uttered) most likely by

a) The Hospital b) The Palace flunkies c) Royal Security

The Palace and Security will not have trod gently on the woman's feeling and will likely have been all over her family history - perhaps that will prove to be the other factor.

None of us here knows what happened or how the poor nurse felt. Maybe we should wait for the inquest.

I dont really think that the health of a patient/baby is something that people should joke or make entertainment out of really.  What if it was really bad news ? I think the radio station prank went out live ?

I read it was prerecorded and OKed by the management.  

Media full of this story this morning.

Australia says all the DJ's did was to make a phone call and from I can determine, all the nurse did was say, " I'll put you through".

From the UK we have statements based on pure hindsight, along the lines of 'surely these people (dj's) must have realised that their actions of making a phone call would result in someone's death. How irresponsible. Get the police!

Think about it.

Some individuals live their lives in anonymity until one day they are exposed as the source of some hideous crime. Not surprisingly they kill themselves. But not in this case.

Some just find existing too much to handle. It doesn't take much more to push them over the edge.

At what level of stress applied to others do we become responsible for their subsequent actions?

Will people be committing suicide over getting a parking ticket or being short changed in a restaurant?

The answer is sadly, possibly.

Will the level of opprobrium I might receive from writing this post cause me to end it all? I think not.

But we all have our limits.

I think the hospital trying to put all the blame on the radio station is trying to cover up for what must be a lack of training for their staff.........

Everything else aside, in my view this underlines how dated prank phone calls made by radio presenters are, perhaps now they won't be done any more.  I'm sure it was all new and cutting edge in the 1970s when Noel Edmonds was at his comedy peak but it seems very old hat now.

Very sad situation and I'm sure the people responsible for the Prank feel terrible, having said that it would be impossible to foresee how such a prank could cause this. The poor woman must have been quite fragile beforehand, or she must have been scared out of her wits at possible repercussions, as I supose it could have been a potentially job threatening issue as I'm led to believe she should not have divulged such information.

Martenkay wrote (see)

Muttley wrote (see)

But the nurse wasn't in the full glare of the media. She only became known after her death.

It's all very sad but I don't think the pranksters can be blamed. I sense there are other factors at play in the poor woman's life or work that we don't know about.

Sorry, my point being what this poor woman feared was about to happen.

Probably the positive will be that the privacy of the nurse that actually divulged the details will be preserved. Surely the press post Lord Leveson will not publish?

Both nurses will have been disciplined or at least severely spoken to (despite the kind words now being uttered) most likely by

a) The Hospital b) The Palace flunkies c) Royal Security

The Palace and Security will not have trod gently on the woman's feeling and will likely have been all over her family history - perhaps that will prove to be the other factor.

Martenkay, where do you get your information from?

The hospital aren't saying anything of the sort. In fact they told her that she wasn't in any trouble. 

I'm not sure how you can "breach security" with a telephone call. How would anyone have been in any sort of danger? Obviously Joe Bloggs getting put through to HRH might warant a review of precedure for vetting calls (it could have been a journalist from one of the tabloids after all, although it's unlikely after Leveson) but what sort of harm was actually done to the royal couple? None whatsoever.

Most of the royals are actually pretty laid back. Prince Charles himself made a joke of it and I can't imagine Kate, or especially William being particularly concerned, if anything they were probably quite amused.  And can you imagine the harm it would do them if they had had been highly critical of the nurse or the hospital? It would have made them look high-handed and arrogant - hardly the image they wany to portray. 

And mentioning the woman's "family history" seems to be your way of accusing the Royal family of some sort of racism which I'm sure does not exist. 

For what it's worth, I can see Colin's point from earlier on this thread.

I've not read back fully, so someone may have made this point - but if the story hadn't been picked up by the British media, it's unlikey that anyone in this country would have even known the prank had happened...

Please everyone stop calling it a 'prank'.

Ringing a hospital to obtain information about a patient by deceit  is NOT a fecking 'prank' however you try and dress it up.

The damage these dickheads have done is beyond the immediacy of the horrific events with the nurse. Anyone genuinely trying to get information about a sick loved one in hospital is going to come up against a complete brick wall.

it has to be a prank if you pretend in crap accents to be the queen and make stupid corgi noises in the background........they would not of made it so stupid if they were really trying to get private info.......they would never of dreamed someone would actually put them through and then give them actual information...

Nope sorry Seren, you simply cannot defend in any way shape or form what they tried to do by dismissing it as simply a 'prank' .... by doing so you are helping them cover themselves, and they should not be allowed to do that.

Phoning a hospital to try and get information by deception is wrong wrong wrong and (regardless of silly voice or not ... imagine the outcry if a genuine patients relative rang with a slightly strange voice and was denied because they thought they were a 'prankster' ... nurses are not employed to discern what is a prank and what is not ... they are employed to look after the sick!)

Bruce, sorry. Facts.

It was a prank call. This call, not any call, this one.

An unedifying piece of entertainment inasmuch as taking the p... is the lowest form of comedy. 

And if the Dj's were directly responsible for the nurses death, then they must be charged with manslaughter. 

Post mortem today. So another search for facts.

We can speculate all we like. And an awful lot of assumptions are being made.

How did the nurse die? I've no idea.

Did she leave a suicide note blaming the Dj's? I've no idea.

What if the post mortem revealed she died of natural causes?