I think the woman who killed herself was the woman who transferred the call to the nurse who gave out the information; she didn’t give out any information herself.
However, if she told the nurse to whom she transferred the call that it was the Queen, I imagine she felt bad that she had let the other nurse down. And that is pure conjecture on my part.
Of course, if her highness had gone NHS this would never have happened. Instead the 5:30am phone call would have rung and rung until a passing cleaner picked it up about two hours later.
That’s what’s being reported here, that the nurse who killed herself only transferred the call, she was not the nurse who gave out the medical information, so i think it’s probably true that she wasn’t being disciplined, although I imagine the hospital was investigating pretty thoroughly which would add to the stress. Tragic news regardless.
Excuse an ignorant Yank here, but what’s “gone NHS” mean?
Gone to the National Health Service
My equally ignorant Yank guess is it means used the National Health Service doctors and midwives instead of a private facility.
StG
The NHS is the National Health Service - public healthcare, as opposed to the private hospital Kate was in.
Yeah, Kate’s probably a bit thrown over how its veered in real life too.
“Woohoo, I’m pregnant! I’m carrying the heir to the heir to the heir to the throne in my uterus!”
“Shit, I’m so ill I’m being hospitalised.”
“Shit, someone’s just killed themselves over my being hospitalised.”
What a way to celebrate the miracle of preparing to bring new life into the world…
This latest development is equally sad and stupid. Much like the capacious knowledge you show here, mascaroni.
But we have a possible new baby name – Jacintha.
This is also out of line, and I hadn’t seen it earlier. Don’t make posts like this directed at other posters in this forum. The Pit is for insults, take it there, please.
You’ve already been told to knock it off. If you have a problem with another poster, take it to the Pit or report the post–don’t respond back in kind. You should know this by now…and along with being told to take it outside this topic earlier, I’m giving you a warning now.
Do not insult others in this forum.
Keep it civil in this thread, people.
Jeez, a sick pregnant Royal, a transatlantic prank, a dead nurse and an unexpected warning - this is one unpredictable thread, people!
Ugh. I just watched the press conference with the head of the radio station. They didn’t come off well, in my opinion. They repeated the phrase, “no one really could have foreseen such an outcome”, so often it was embarrassing. He basically said it was unreasonable expect them to have thought it through to any degree at all. Not once did he say it was awful or deplorable or that the station didn’t endorse the actions. Just that is was an unpredictable tragedy.
Like that there might be any consequences whatsoever to others they were involving, (like job loss say, or professional humiliation, or being made complicit in a betrayal of their duty). Apparently, in Auz that’s too much to expect and these dj should get a pass because pranks are just what radio dj’s do. It seems “Yeah, I guess I never thought of that…” is a sound defense down under!
Then went on at length about how worried they were about their djs. And they were still using the audio of the phone call as on air promotion even after the news of the suicide hit.
Then they cut to citizens on the street defending them, as well. Ugh.
(On the up side, the station’s two largest advertisers have jumped ship.)
Well, I think the radio station is right. If you play a joke on someone and they kill themselves over it, it is not really your fault, even if the joke was a little mean. It’s very unfortunate, but it’s a massive overreaction on the victim’s part. They had no reason to anticipate anything like this outcome. There must have been more going on if something like this could make the poor woman take her own life. The other nurse involved was embarrassed to a much greater degree, but she hasn’t committed suicide.
If there’s any blame to be had, it’s by the hospital and royal security for failing to have condifentialty procedures in place. But they seem happy to let the radio station take the flak.
I disagree. No one would have known she would be so affected as to do such a drastic thing. But any damn thinking person could have foreseen that, if it worked, there would be push back for whoever fell for the gag.
Are you saying they weren’t aware what they were doing amounted to breaching security and accessing someone’s private medical records? I think I’d have a hard time believing that. How could they not be aware that medical information is strictly private? Or that the hospital didn’t have security in place to keep private information private?
More like they didn’t care what happened to anyone else they involved, not the patient, not the staff, just that nothing would happen to them. That’s why so much of the new conference focused on, “Hey, I don’t think we broke any actual laws here!” Very classy indeed.
For me, it is ridiculous to think they could not foresee that if their little stunt worked, someone might lose their job, be reprimanded, lose their security clearance, feel professionally humiliated, and be exposed unwillingly to infamy of the worst sort. (And saying, “We didn’t really think it would work!” ranks right up there with, “I shot him but I never thought I’d kill him!”, as a defense, in my mind!),
I am curious now to know what would happen to a nurse or doctor in Australia who breaks patient confidentiality? Do they lose their license? Is it not a crime there? Would a conviction affect their ability to work in any way at all?
You don’t have to think too long or hard to recognize, going in, any of those things could happen. It seems more like they only cared what would happen to them and the rest can be damned. Yes suicide could not have been foreseen. But ugly consequences for the ‘tricked’ were easily foreseeable and willingly overlooked or ignored. All for some shits and giggles.
And now a humiliated professional, her reputation destroyed, lies dead. For a stupid prank.
Oh there’s blame to be had alright. But for me, it lies with those who would attempt to wave away the responsibility of those who initiated these events and are, in fact, to blame.
I just hope they don’t take it as personally as the nurse did. But it seems like their countrymen are behind them, and it’s not like they will lose any certifications. If anything it will add to their fame, so not likely.
elbows, I think you’ve said it best. Those DJ’s, once they got to the point where they’d succeeded and were actually starting to get medical info, should have said “Whoa!” and revealed it was a prank.
A woman is dead, as you said, all for some shits and giggles.
It’s not a joke.
Of course, in this post-ironic detached "oh just get the fuck over yourself people everything is fair game " environment, lots of people think it’s just hilarious.
So hilarious in fact that what people should do is wait until the female d.j. has kids, sends them to school and then " harmlessly prank call her " at work. The sound of a child, screaming and frightened, whose screams are suddenly cut off. Mom thinks her girl has been kidnapped and murdered- on the phone.
Right? Funny shit man ! We love it !! Harmless !!
Dickheads.
What’s sad is that the radio station’s attorney vetted the whole thing and then they aired it. Because some sadistic infantile lawyer said it was just fine, they aired it. And now we get to witness the results.
Then, there’s the ( by comparison benign ) fact that fraud was committed to obtain private medical records. No clue what the law is in the U.K. regarding this, is there a HIPAA- like set of laws?
elbows, just stop the Australia bashing, ok? 21 million of us had nothing to do with it. There’s a dickhead element in the country who have been defending the moronic duo. Big whoop. The dickhead element exist everywhere, not just here, and they don’t speak for us all. Grow the fuck up and direct your anger at those who deserve it - Mel Greig and Michael Christian, the radio personalities (who I’d never even heard of until this week; that’s how popular their brand of juvenile humour is over here), their boss Rhys Holleran, and 2dayFM/Austereo.
Drawing any conclusions about Australian laws regarding patient confidentiality from any of this is beyond ridiculous. It’s pathetic, and it looks like the rantings of a loon.
HIPAA punishes people who inappropriately release medical information, AFAIK it says nothing at all about people who make the request. The exception is if the person making the request is also in the medical profession. Someone who works in a hospital is in violation if they simply browse through patient records out of curiosity, even if they don’t disclose it to another party.
IIRC there was a celeb in an American hospital within the last year or two, and the hospital ended up firing half a dozen people or so when a computer audit showed they had looked at the medical data for no valid reason. One or more of them may also have blabbed to the press about it, but surely not all of them.
As you can see, I didn’t draw any conclusions, I asked a bunch of questions. And my ire was directed at these djs and this station, and the dickheads defending it as a simple ‘prank’. I was never Australia bashing. One of my very dearest friends is an Australian, and I know he’s equally disdainful. I apologize if I left you with that impression. It was not my intention.