Royal Prank Call Nurse 'Commits Suicide'

[The Fruity Hare]

That really is speculation. I doubt very much that it was the Australian call itself that caused her to suicide. It's a suicide. It isn't something she decided to do just because somebody said "boo" one day. There will be a whole lot of complicating factors around her decision to take her own life, and the prank call will only be peripherally involved.

If you want to trace the acts that led her to that decision in the very long term I would bet you dollars to donuts that she was already suffering from depression and the people and institutions around her either failed to see it, or failed to respond effectively.

In the very very short term, in the minutes and hours ahead of her decision to kill herself, I bet there were negative interactions with people in her workplace, negative implications for her job prospects, loss of respect from her co-workers. While these things may have ultimately been reactions to the story in the media, they are likely MUCH more about the culture and relationships already in place in that hospital prior to that phone call even happening.

There isn't going to be a simple answer to why she killed herself. People get pranked all the time and they do not suicide. A lot of teenagers get bullied the way Amanda Todd did, but they do not all go on to take their own life. There are personal and environmental factors there that are MUCH more significant.

What you should really be asking is, what could change, that might have prevented this woman from taking her own life.

Absolutely, with certainty, I can say that the answers to that question will all be found in her personal and work relationships, and will have nothing whatsoever to do with media policy in Australia. Most of them will relate to the culture in that hospital, the availability of resources she could have turned to, the ways in which conflicts are managed there, and quite a lot, maybe just how well we do at helping people in our society develop meaningful friendships and family relationships.

You certainly are full of yourself. You cannot say anything about her mental state "With Certainty"

However, that will not prevent you from spouting more on this and other subjects.

 

[rld]

Then I will have to say that you are a bit daft yourself, little baby Jesus notwithstanding.

It's okay dan, I am daft are soldiers are mercenaries, deleting threads so people can't put your stupid statements back to you...your value judgments of me don't concern me at all. A long string of dishonorable conduct our your part has really made you quite valueless.

 

[danmand]

It's okay dan, I am daft are soldiers are mercenaries, deleting threads so people can't put your stupid statements back to you...your value judgments of me don't concern me at all. A long string of dishonorable conduct our your part has really made you quite valueless.

That put us in exactly the same situation vis a vis each other. Have a merry good Christmas and a Happy New Year.

 

[rhuarc29]

those australian raadio DJ's are gonna get a bad media backlash. I don;t think what they did was wrong this nurse probably had previous mental issues and was obviously unfit to work. If she was really excellent and well respected she would have laughed it off and not killed herself

I would think the opposite. If she was well respected, being responsible for giving out private information to improperly identified individuals would be a huge blow, especially if she had a strong sense of duty. Added on top of that is the fact that it was royalty, which I don't personally understand...but then again, we're talking about England.

 

[blackrock13]

Ahhh...working in an environment surrounded by unionized public servants, or worse, an actual public servant - it's becomming clear to me now. It's absolutely their fault if they put her in that position. Perhaps she could handle it under normal circumstances but not with a royal in the place.

If you were half as smart as you think you are and paid attention to what others posted, but then maybe it was during your somnambulant period, i've said many times I'm self employed, have been for over 35 years and never been a union member. I spent less than 6 months as a public servant upon graduation from university and swore off that career path with purpose and conviction.

Again not paying attention, it's been reported often that this hospital was used to having the Royals as patients. Many of them over the years have been there for medical care.

 

[Scarey]

First Diana, now some poor girl who slipped up.Let that be a warning to anyone else who mucks with the Royals bloodline........think they don't know their way around the dark world of episonage? Think again...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AS-dCdYZbo

 

[fuji]

And you responded with more speculation.

I responded with reasoned common sense. People suffer stress in their life all the time, and they don't take their life every time it happens. In this case the cause of the stress was a prank played by an Australian media organization, but there are all sorts of others stresses that are equally tough to deal with, perhaps tougher--divorce, loss of a loved one, business failure, job loss, illness. People flat out do not suicide every time their life becomes stressful and difficult.

This woman did.

I guarantee you, absolutely, that there was more going on in her life than a prank call from the Australian media. She was in some sort of trouble already, and this event happened to be the stressful thing that happened to push her over the edge--but it could have been something else. How do I know that? It's inconceivable that it was any different.

Suicide never has a simple, single cause. Never.

Moreover, and yes Fruity, I absolutely can say this with certainty: The solutions to suicides are not to be found in the Australian media policy. That's just the source of the particular stress that finally led her to take her own life, but it is certainly NOT the cause of her depression, or other mental illness, and it is NOT the reason why her support networks, her friends, and her place of employment failed to detect the warning signs, failed to act on them, failed to intervene in a meaningful way.

What I am critical of here is this desire to simplify her suicide down to, "the Australian media is to blame". That is just stupid. People aren't that fragile. Rather, if they ARE that fragile, it is because they are already suffering from an underlying mental illness. Perhaps a depression in her case that was going untreated, or perhaps some other mental disorder, untreated either for lack of proper access to care, lack of access to psychiatric resources, or lack of a support network to guide her to one.

The real question is this: Why did she feel she had nowhere to turn? In answering that you will find actions that perhaps could have saved her life, not in Australian media policy.

 

[Aardvark154]

First Diana, now some poor girl who slipped up.Let that be a warning to anyone else who mucks with the Royals

As already posted, how about this instead: The nurse liked her work, and took pride in it. Perhaps she had met the Duchess and found her to be kind and considerate. This occurred at 5:30 in the morning (see my previous comment in #26 about working all night). Perhaps like most in the U.K. she supports the monarchy. Perhaps she felt that she had let down herself, the hospital, the Duchess and the Royal Family. She was in an emotionally vulnerable place (many are at Christmas).

 

[Aardvark154]

I guarantee you, absolutely, that there was more going on in her life

Perhaps.

That [the Australian DJs are] just the source of the particular stress that finally led her to take her own life

Sorry that you can't see it this way, but doggone right that was the proximate cause of her suicide and the blame lies firmly on them.

 

[fuji]

Sorry that you can't see it this way, but doggone right that was the proximate cause of her suicide and the blame lies firmly on them.

How do you know that? How do you know that the proximate cause wasn't, say, being ostracized by her co-workers, or perhaps something harsh said to her by a supervisor? I can't fathom how you would know.

 

[Aardvark154]

How do you know that? How do you know that the proximate cause wasn't, say, being ostracized by her co-workers, or perhaps something harsh said to her by a supervisor? I can't fathom how you would know.

Quite simply Fuji which came first any supposed ostracizastion or supposed harsh words or the phone call.

 

[smiley1437]

I found a transcript of the call, it's surprising that her extremely brief conversation with the DJs (she says all of 13 words before transferring them to the second nurse) could be the root cause of her suicide.

Also - the transcript is a bit creepy with the (Laughter) sections when you know that it directly or indirectly caused someones death.


-----------

(PHONE RINGS)

Receptionist: Hello, good morning, King Edward VII Hospital.

Greig (Queen voice): Oh hello there, could I please speak to Kate please, my granddaughter.

Receptionist: Oh yes, just hold on ma'am.

Greig: Thank you.

Christian: Are they putting us through?

Greig: Yes.

(Laughter)

Christian: If this has worked, it's the easiest prank call we have ever made. Your accent sucked, by the way, I just want you to know.

(Laughter)


-------
Full transcript here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/12/07/royal-prank-call-transcript_n_2257651.html?ncid=GEP

 

[fun-guy]

Something doesn't add up. It was unclear earlier for me, now it's clear as mud.

 

[Aardvark154]

Smiley, OK, Q "Can I please have the key to the Deposit Box" A "Here you are."

 

[fuji]

Quite simply Fuji which came first any supposed ostracizastion or supposed harsh words or the phone call.

I don't know. Do you?

I will repeat what I said: Stressful events do NOT cause people to kill themselves. Depression and mental illness combined with a lack of support, failure to seek and receive treatment, and a feeling of nowhere to turn cause people to kill themselves. If stressful events caused people to kill themselves then none of us would make it past our 18th birthday.

 

[Aardvark154]

I don't know. Do you?

Oh for the love of God Fuji, can you possibly be any more obtuse?

 

[Mervyn]

This thread is stupid.

Her death is suspected as suicide, not confirmed yet.

People are talking about all the pressurez she faced from fellow workers was a factor... how do you know she was even working in the intervening days ?

 

[Aardvark154]

http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment...yed-for-hours-after-death-20121208-2b1y1.html

 

[backrubman]

The thing that strikes me most about this is how funny people find this kind of social engineering prank when nobody dies. A Montreal radio station having called Bill Gates claiming to be the President of the United States and had him fooled for an extensive conversation with poor Billy boy checking his schedule to confirm he would be able to attend a suggested meeting, but eventually the callers started talking too crazy for even Bill Gates to be fooled any longer – and the world laughed at him. No one is laughing at this one any longer

 

[LKD]

The royals are taken very seriously in Britain by the press. Its a sad day for all. Poor nurse was stupid enough to kill herself and stupid DJs don't know where to draw the line.

The sage of the British royals continues with Catherine's pregnancy.