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10:09 am - 12/07/2012

Tragedy As Receptionist Who Connected Kate Middleton Prank Callers Commits Suicide

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The prank phone call saga in which two Australian DJs impersonated the queen and got connected to a nurse looking after Kate Middleton took a tragic turn today after the receptionist who put the call through reportedly committed suicide.

The Daily Mail is reporting that a receptionist at the private King Edward hospital which treated the Duchess of Cambridge was found at an address yards away from King Edward VII Hospital, where she worked, just before 9.30am yesterday.



The emergency services were called and two ambulances were despatched to the central London residence, the Mail said, adding: "Officers from Scotland Yard launched an investigation yesterday and are treating the death as ‘unexplained’ and that while the exact cause of death remained unclear… one source indicated that the woman appeared to have killed herself.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said yesterday: ‘Police were called at approximately 9.25am on Friday, December 7, to a report of a woman found unconscious an address in Weymouth Street, W1. London Ambulance Service attended and the woman was pronounced dead at the scene. Enquiries are continuing to establish the circumstances of the incident. The death is not being treated as suspicious at this stage’.

The tragic news will heap pressure on 2dayFM, the radio station which made the call.

The station is already serving two five-year license probations after serious breaches of the Australian regulator's code.

The broadcaster was handed the first reprimand in 2009 after a 14-year-old girl was attached to a lie detector and then said live on air that she had been raped.

The girl and her mother featured in a segment called ‘Lie Detector’ on 2Day FM's breakfast show hosted by Kyle Sandilands and Jackie O'Neil Henderson.

The mother asked the daughter: “Have you ever had sex?” The 14-year-old replied: “I've already told you the story about this ... and don't look at me and smile because it’s not funny.”

After a pause, she raised her voice with frustration and said: “Oh okay, I got raped when I was 12 years old.”
After a long pause, Sandilands then asked “Right ... is that the only experience you've had?" before the mother admitted she knew of the rape “a couple of months ago".

Her daughter yelled, “Yet you still asked me the question.”

The regulator again ruled against the station when it found that 2DayFM's Kyle & Jackie O Show breached decency codes when broadcaster Kyle Sandilands called a female journalist a "fat slag" in November.
ACMA, said the comments were "deeply derogatory and offensive"

He was reported as saying: "What a fat bitter thing you are, you deputy editor of an online thing. You've got a nothing job anyway. You're a piece of s**t,' he said.‘You’re a bulls**t artist, girl. That's what you are. You should be fired from your job."

The call was made by DJs Michael Christian and Mel Greig. Greig asked to be connected to, "Kate, my grandaughter," and was put through by the receptionist.

The DJs issued an apology following a furore which erupted in the UK following broadcast of the call. The duo said in a statement: ‘We were very surprised that our call was put through. We thought we'd be hung up on as soon as they heard our terrible accents. We're very sorry if we've caused any issues.

Source

I hope those assholes are proud of themselves. That poor, poor, woman...

speedychi 7th-Dec-2012 03:45 pm (UTC)
Whuuuuut? Not the nurse??


...wait, will there be conspiracy theories about this?

shangri__la 7th-Dec-2012 03:47 pm (UTC)
The woman who killed herself was also a nurse.

supervixen06 7th-Dec-2012 03:48 pm (UTC)
That was one of my first thoughts
vehiclesshockme 7th-Dec-2012 03:49 pm (UTC)
She was also a nurse.
speedychi 7th-Dec-2012 04:02 pm (UTC)
By not the Jess from the prank, right? She just transferred the call to her?
misha_bsb 7th-Dec-2012 04:41 pm (UTC)
Yes, it was Jess ( I guess it's a nickname for "Jacintha"), the nurse on duty as a receptionist who transferred the call.
speedychi 7th-Dec-2012 04:46 pm (UTC)
I dunno how it auocorrected to say Jess, but I mean nurse haha.

But I mean she wasn't the actual nurse on th phone, the one that was on the radio
mercurialness 7th-Dec-2012 03:59 pm (UTC)
Having worked in medical reception for about 10 years, I can tell you that it is the receptionist's job to verify a caller's identity and that their is a signed consent for release of information that even specifies what kinds of information can be given to a particular person (i.e any info they ask for, or just their general well-being but no treatment specific info, etc.) When she transferred the call, the nurse was within reason to expect protocol had been followed. I'd imagine especially with such a high-profile patient, there'd be reasonable belief that all bases had been covered.

Not blaming the receptionist at all or anything like that because the DJs are the ones who caused all of this mess, but the nurse isn't really responsible. Their duties are strictly patient care.
speedychi 7th-Dec-2012 04:06 pm (UTC)
Ahh. Well then that makes sense, it was her fault


...RIP
arielcharming 7th-Dec-2012 04:34 pm (UTC)
I still don't think it was her fault. It's her job, yes. But it was the jocks who did something wrong, it's their fault. She just made a mistake.
speedychi 7th-Dec-2012 04:38 pm (UTC)
How is it not her fault? Her job is to weed out people like the pranksters. I mean I feel bad and everything, but you can't say she did her job...
spiritstairway 7th-Dec-2012 05:07 pm (UTC)
I read that it was a nurse just covering the switchboard because they called at 5:30am. So maybe she's also used to just receiving calls that have already followed protocol and wasn't very suspicious. Obviously though that's speculation.

For any high profile patient I'd be fucking terrified of giving out any information whatsoever. People are sneaky as fuck. I had one woman call me up and bawl for literally 20 minutes because she was going to lose custody of her son if we didn't release his medical records (idk what that was about). I told her to talk to patient services and that she could sign a form and have them send it over ASAP but she said that she didn't have any proof that she was his mother :/
scaredsquee 7th-Dec-2012 05:51 pm (UTC)
she wasn't a regular receptionist though she was a nurse http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20645838
starbooks 7th-Dec-2012 09:30 pm (UTC)
there was no receptionist on duty, it was just up to whoever walked by to pick up the phone.
okmewriting 7th-Dec-2012 09:58 pm (UTC)
She wasn't a receptionist tho, she was a nurse. For the call to get to through to the nurse they usually go through the switchboard.
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