Friday 7 December 2012

Suicide in London

That hoax call from the Australian radio station to the London hospital which pretended to be members of the British royal family enquiring as to the health of the Duchess of Cambridge - we don't know the details of the suicide of the nurse who was receptionist at the time, and although everyone is shocked and gutted at what has happened, I - for one - also feel for the two radio presenters who are holed-up in hiding as a result of being blamed for it.

At the time I thought, 'not very funny, but good on them for getting away with it'. Now I think that they, like the rest of us, could never have guessed what was going to happen. Let's not be too hard on them, even if the whole thing was a result of the hoax - which has not yet been established.

9 comments:

  1. not their fault
    plain and simple!
    hey ho

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  2. I never did like practical jokes as most of them are hurtful on at least some level. Yes i guess i am a bit of a stick-in-the-mud. In the Aussies' defence, i don't think they thought it through, really, just thought it a larf, and i'm sure they never expected something like this would occur.

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  3. I must be living under a rock! Have heard nothing of it. I'm with Megan on this one though. Practical jokes are intended to make a fool of someone. I don't know about other countries but some Oz radio stations do push the 'cruel' boundaries sometimes and when it backfires on them, we all feel sorry for them. Maybe they should have a little think before they upset innocents for public entertainment and advertising revenue.

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  4. It was a joke gone bad. I feel most sorry for the two teenage sons this woman left behind. This unsuspecting woman most likely had other problems that influenced her reaction to being pranked. Ann

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  5. Bad story all around. It is very sad for all concerned.

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  6. I just feel so sorry for the poor girl. If her death was definitely a result of this call, one can hardly imagine how she must have felt. We will probably never know. As Arleen says 'a bad story all round'.

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  7. I sort of agree with you all. (this is the fifth attempt to comment on my own bloody blog!)

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  8. I think that the hospital directorate is being ingenuous ( or more likely defensive) in blaming the radio station.

    What on earth was any hospital, and particularly a private hospital with a royal patient doing a) having a clearly unbriefed nurse act as a telephone receptionist b) having an unbriefed ward nurse respond to a call put through from reception without checking the id herself - in fact of any caller? We have tighter regulations at my local NHS hospital which will only take calls regarding an in-patient from one nominated relative.

    However it is really depressing that a radio station should consider that it is OK to make a 'prank' phone call about any woman in hospital who is experiencing severe pain in the early stage of pregnancy and could easily lose her baby.

    A shameful incidence of adding to the arguement against media freedom that the arrogant head of the Australian organisation stupidly seems unable to understand.

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