Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Apologies for the downer here.

Many will be aware that some member of England's Royal family is pregnant.

Many will have chuckled when some Australian Radio Station made a crank call, claiming to be from, the UK Queen.

I confess, I found it funny as did others, I'm sure, when the nurse blabbed out details of the patients condition, apparently believing she was talking to the Queen!

Not surprisingly, that nurse was suspended from her job. As a nurse, my self, I can tell anyone, that is one of the more serious offenses any nurse can do and any nurse doing that will loose their jobs and their career.

I'm sorry to report that the nurse  has now died.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20645838 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20645838)

I cannot condone her behaviour. It was unacceptable and the consequences will have been obvious to her. But I can, as a nurse, sympathise with her mistake. As stupid and silly as it it, when stress strikes and you have so many emotions, you can make silly very elementary mistakes.

I am so very sad and even devastated that this young woman seems to have been unable to see her life continuing without nursing. In an age when so many nurses seem to practice being cold and efficient, the warmth and dedications seems to have vanished.

But it seems for this young woman, practising that dedication was just too much to loose.

I'm sure those who thought it was a good idea to make that call must be feeling really good about themselves right now. ::)

*sigh*

Such a shame. I can only hope that this serves as a warning for the future to allow people their privacy and not prey on unsuspecting, hard-working folks for the sake of a cheap laugh.

Charges should be filed against those radio people.  Fraud at the least.

RIP, Jacintha.  :(

The radio people should lose their job over this...at the least, if I were an advertiser I'd pull my ads.

So sad for her, her family, and her peers.

A lot of times, these radio folks do this without thinking of anything else but their audience numbers.  It's a shame that they did this, and I would agree that they should be suspended or terminated for their thoughtlessness.  If it happened in the US, they could have been prosecuted (mandatory prison time) for impersonating in an attempt to get around HIPAA laws.  Of course, the poor nurse would have been guilty and prosecuted herself.   

The radio show should fire the DJs.  To oull such a prank that lead to someone elses death, should not be allowed to keep their jobs.

I wonder if it's illegal in Australia to impersonate the queen in order to gain some advantage? In the us, one cannot impersonate any authority, if it's for any gain or deception...

The death of the nurse is thought to be a suicide.

Very tragic.

Quote from: Carol on December 07, 2012, 10:56:57 AM
A lot of times, these radio folks do this without thinking of anything else but their audience numbers.  It's a shame that they did this, and I would agree that they should be suspended or terminated for their thoughtlessness.  If it happened in the US, they could have been prosecuted (mandatory prison time) for impersonating in an attempt to get around HIPAA laws.  Of course, the poor nurse would have been guilty and prosecuted herself.

The sad fact of the matter is that, from April 2003 to July 2011, there were no Federal prosecutions for HIPAA violations.

Hi

It's been headline news here in Sydney, as it was one of our pathetic radio stations that did it.

They have been taken off air indefinitely as of today.

I suppose they will get back on air but I personally hope they are not.
All for ratings... That seems to be more important than a life.
Truly pathetic and very sad. :'(

J

As Jenny said they have been taken off the air.

It is a radio station in Sydney that has a history of shock jocks.

My opinion and legally useless. Manslaughter, they drove her to commit suicide.

See how funny the joke is when your consequences are taken into account.

So so sad.

RIP my dear, you have and had nothing to be ashamed of.

Cindy

I don't think they should be fired. This whole thing was a disaster, how could anyone ever predict that what was suppose to be a harmless prank would end this way? They didn't mean to cause this. Of course they don't feel good about it.

Suspending her was harsh.

The nurse wasn't suspended.

I always thought there was a protocol to get the permission of the person being pranked which clearly wouldn't have been given so it's a failure of management.

I have no sympathy with the dj's but there is now a witch hunt against them. How would opinion change if one of them committed suicide?

Responsibility


Strange word that covers lots views.

What is responsibility?

Quote from: sandrauk on December 08, 2012, 05:33:36 AM
The nurse wasn't suspended.

I always thought there was a protocol to get the permission of the person being pranked which clearly wouldn't have been given so it's a failure of management.

I have no sympathy with the dj's but there is now a witch hunt against them. How would opinion change if one of them committed suicide?

Just desserts. They made their bed, now let them lay in it.

OK - update from SKY news here in the UK

- The nurse killed herself

- The DJ's version of the Queen had a strong Australian accent which they assumed would alert whoever answered the phone that this was a prank

- There is no proof that the DJs intended any arm to come to the nurse, so there is no pre-meditation.

- There ARE laws in both the UK and Oz that require permission from those involved in phones before those calls are broadcast. This law has been broken

- Both the DJs have been pulled and THEY are being offered counselling. It is possible that they are in shock from the fallout of this.

- Advertisers in Oz are pulling their ads from the radio station.


Please bear in mind that no matter how coarse or stupid the prank was, it is a prank gone badly wrong and that as well as the nurse and her family there are other people who are affected as well. In 99.999% of situations the fallout would have been a lot less than in this incident.

I have to agree with many who say this is clearly a rather silly prank, gond horribly wrong. It seems unlikely that the DJs intended any serious harm. Their initial reactions would seem to indicate they expected to be caught out almost immediatly. I am also interested in the hospital's claim they had not suspended the nurse. I'm sorry I find that difficult to accept, simply because it is normal procedure, in any controversy, to remove the member of staff, at least until an investigation is carried out. But minor point.

The point I feel so strongly about is that this was clearly a nurse of the old school. That is, a nurse who has dedicated herself to her vocation and for whom, bringing shame onto that vocation and to herself, is just too devastating to bear.

I feel so much for her. I know, like any nurse, I would always be so very careful in everything I do. Giving out medicines, for example. But I can imagine I might make such an elementary mistake.

Dealing with what are called high profile patients is always difficult. They get the same care, of course, but their care is complicated. I had one such in a surgical ward once who was put into a side room with the curtains closed. The reason was we simply couldn't risk a photographer, possably bothering other patients.

But in such a difficult environment, it is so easy to make a mistake. I eventualy sought to avoid these patients simply because I feared, and still fear, that I might blurt out confidential information. Even pop stars open their bowels.

I don't believe I would kill myself. This nurse was clearly already disturbed by other things. But I can feel so strongly for her here. I feel very sad for her family, her collegues and frankly, for the DJs involved.

A silly prank I don't believe anyone thought would end this way. But there for the grace of god could have gone me.

That has shaken me.

Apologies for the lecture.

I would think this is beyond high profile, it's pretty much aside from the Queen herself the most important person(s) in the kingdom right now, it's not just a baby, it's the heir and all that junk.  Forget HIPPA or whatever, giving out any information, ANY, over the phone about this particular patient is a huge security concern, and I can't believe that the staff wasn't briefed on that extensively.  EXTENSIVELY!  Her getting put on leave or suspended (which the violation of privacy would have been enough for alone) no doubt had a lot to do with terrorism and security violations that must have the people who guard the Royals going absolutely nuts.  And how did she get assigned to do that, she seems not exactly all that bright.

See, I'm finding it hard to believe that we (the theater I work for) have better procedures in place to deal with Snoop Dog than they do in dealing with the Royal Family.

And I'm sure that as this was going down the DJs found it impossible to believe that someone would/could actually be tricked like that.  Sara Palin, who got one of the best phone pranks ever played on her had it coming, but she was a total attention freak and pretty gullible too, but who would actually think the Queen herself is making a personal phone call and asking for this information.  Doesn't she have some Lord High Floozle of the Ye Olde Talking Machine to do that for her?  (Frankly I'd be surprised if she has EVER picked up a phone and dialed it herself, I mean yikes I don't think she even brushes her own teeth - we know Charles doesn't)  I'm sure the old lady has a huge staff to report this information to her, or that she would get it from the Prince/family, and I'm in Cali, I would think that anyone in England would know the Royal Protocol a little better than this.  Heck, both Lyndon Johnson and later, Bill Clinton tried to do this (make personal calls to average people) only to have people hang up on them so often that they had to go back to letting the White House Switchboard set it up (and often it takes them several tries - people just don't believe the White House is calling them.)

I think your points are well made Tekla.

But the problem from the position of view of the nurse is, they cannot treat anyone differently. People are treated according to their needs.

But if your favourite pop star comes in, it takes all your concentration, all your determination, your resolve, to do only what is right. You wanna fall at their feet and have their babies. You wanna say all those things you been thinking of for years. You wanna shout from the roof tops, but you keep your head and do the job.

I know because I've had to do that and I know that that's tiring.

I don't excuse what this nurse did, but I sure do understand it.

As for who this woman is related to, however much it might be difficult to understand, that is and must be, irrelevant. She's a patient.

Quote from: Beth Andrea on December 08, 2012, 06:16:18 AM
Just desserts. They made their bed, now let them lay in it.

That's very harsh. I could understand you saying that if they had been particularly cruel to her in their prank, but they were not.

The DJs have voluntary went off the air foe the time being.

We can all take a lesson from this. Our words can hurt. Something said without malice can turn around and have a dire effect on another person. Don't tease. Don't poke. You may save a life. Hugs, Devlyn

And now it is my turn to apologise.

The DJ's are also under suicide watch. May they be alright.

Quote from: Devlyn Marie on December 08, 2012, 02:42:33 PM
We can all take a lesson from this. Our words can hurt. Something said without malice can turn around and have a dire effect on another person. Don't tease. Don't poke. You may save a life. Hugs, Devlyn

Obviously it doesn't hold very well since a huge chunk of the world still thinks that it's okay to berate these 2 into depression over some stupid prank that anyone could predict was meaningless.

Quote from: Cindy James on December 08, 2012, 10:35:12 PM
And now it is my turn to apologise.

The DJ's are also under suicide watch. May they be alright.

That's dreadful news. Thank you Cindy for keeping us all informed. Their healing will take a lot longer and I don't believe the patient or her family will need any more stress at what should be a a happy time.

It's just all so very sad.

Yes we are all perfect.

Yes we all want to have a laugh

Yes we are great critics.

We are all better than each other.

Some kids made a prank phone call and I stated that they should be charged with manslaughter.

Shows how big I am.

People are posting that they hope the DJ's enjoy having blood on their hands.

Goddess they are the same age as Kate.

I feel so ashamed.

I have learned a lesson.

And it hurts.

Australian radio DJs Full Interview - Kate Nurse Prank Call - 2Day FM on A Current Affair (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tyV19ItB20#)

Thanks for posting that. It clarifies the situation because it appears that this was not a LIVE prank. This was recorded, someone in management listened to it and approved it and THEN  it was broadcast.

If heads should roll, it should be in the management team.

At least they are showing genuine remorse.  And management bears sole responsibly for airing the prank.

I'd like to open this discussion up.

What do we learn from this. We who are often vilified and joked about.

What do we learn?

My quick temper was unjust? OK learned that.

What do we learn about how we treat people?

You note how we treat people not how we are treated.

This matter was discussed this morning in a discussion program on TV.

A few thoughts.

The nurse, however tragic it was for her, was undoubtedly already quite depressed. But, I do hope we can learn that, for many professions, nursing but others, what people put into their work may make the prospect of loosing it a lot more than we might think.

Crank calls and such are one thing. But doing this to people who are not used to being in the public eye is rather more unplesent. We had a similar issue recently, when two people on Radio, one of them Russel Brand, phoned a rather elderly, though experienced actory. It seems Brand had had a brief relationship with this actor's grand-daughther before being dumped.

The two essentially made a series of insulting and personal remarks about the girl, to her grandfather. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/3274807/Transcript-Russell-Brand-and-Jonathan-Ross-prank-call-to-Andrew-Sachs.html (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/3274807/Transcript-Russell-Brand-and-Jonathan-Ross-prank-call-to-Andrew-Sachs.html) This was, I believe rightly, seen as unacceptable.

People who do these sort of things really need to be more careful. They need to understand they are essentially attacking others. They should never involve children or those doing their jobs. In those cases, for example, a child answers the phone, they simply say who they are and that they were phoning their parent/someone.

Let's just stop trying to play the blame game on who did what instead of them. The fact is, it was just a prank call, nobody on that station is responsible. It's unrealistic to assume that they're going to take everything into account of what might happen, because that's so far off. Who the frick is going to sum up "oh, we can't make this prank call because the nurse might kill herself?" First of all we don't even know why she killed herself, for all we know she didn't care remotely and did it for other reasons, or, someone forced her to.

Ugh srry, this topic makes me fired up.

You may be right Trista. It is a presumption.

Making a "Prank call" is wrong no matter what you reason or job.

These radio announcers made a bad judgement all in the name of humor or self promotion.  I agree they could not know how the nurse would react.

But the call was still wrong.

Quote from: Sarah Louise on December 10, 2012, 11:14:18 AM
Making a "Prank call" is wrong no matter what you reason or job.

These radio announcers made a bad judgement all in the name of humor or self promotion.  I agree they could not know how the nurse would react.

But the call was still wrong.

Agreed. You may not know the reaction, but what makes it OK to pester someone for no reason?

Quote from: Sarah Louise on December 10, 2012, 11:14:18 AM
But the call was still wrong.

Especially bad because the media has great power to draw a lot of attention to a private individual. That's why there are laws that protect private citizens from having their likenesses shown on TV without their permission.

To my seeing, radio, newspapers, and TV stations bear a much greater responsibility for their pranks than, say, your average 11-year old who's asking about whether appliances are running.

Quote from: Sarah Louise on December 10, 2012, 11:14:18 AM
Making a "Prank call" is wrong no matter what you reason or job.

It's more wrong to be one of those people who blew it out of proportion, and are treating them horribly for it when they already feel like crap. Making a prank call or several prank calls doesn't make you a terrible person.

But the problem from the position of view of the nurse is, they cannot treat anyone differently. People are treated according to their needs.
Nice try, but it's not true.  First of all, when most women get a bun in the oven they go to see a OB/GNY, and they get a few things checked out, and they get a vitamin supplement and are told to keep in good shape.  They don't (baring some obvious problem) get put in the hospitle for a couple of days so that every test that can be run is run.  She is NOT just another patient.

Moreover, when is it ever the nurses duty to give out information out over the phone to someone who calls?  And here - even if, and I know you have to treat them the same in terms of medical stuff - we both know that she is not just some other patient in terms of security.  Her and that bun in the oven are perhaps 2 of the 3 most important people in the Empire at the current moment, and it's not rocket science to understand that.   And again - I'm sure they were briefed on that security issue - BIG TIME.

And really, if you're telling me that she is, and ought to be, treated like any other NHS patient, I'm not buying it.

But if your favorite pop star comes in, it takes all your concentration, all your determination, your resolve, to do only what is right. You wanna fall at their feet and have their babies. You wanna say all those things you been thinking of for years. You wanna shout from the roof tops, but you keep your head and do the job.
No, I don't.  I (unfortunately) met my heroes years ago, and I'm long over it.  To tell the truth I treat them more like Special Ed students than stars.  I do my best to put on the best show in the world every night we do a show, no matter who is playing, that's how I got my job pretty much.  They are Tonight's Trained Seals, and tomorrow night we'll have a different seal.  I'm working with them, far more than I work for them.

As for who this woman is related to, however much it might be difficult to understand, that is and must be, irrelevant. She's a patient.
You would be wrong about that too.  That's exactly why the nurse had problems.

I'm sorry you seem to feel quite strongly.

The reasons we, the public, were told why she went into hospital are not necessarily the actual reasons. There are a number of situations where a woman in the first timester of pregnancy may need to be admitted for tests.

The nurse in charge will generally give information. There is nothing unusual in this at all. As for security, that is not the nurses' job at all. I have cared for prisoners, serving long sentences for serious offences. If I or any nurse had found one escaping and they asked the way out, for example, I would point the way. Simply because it isn't my job to keep him in custody.

I didn't say she would be treated like any NHS patient, I said she would be treated like any patient.

Your point about how you would react to a pop star.  I have no idea what you're talking about.

And no, the nurse had problems because she made a silly, elementary mistake which I can see myself making so very easily.

Quote from: spacial on December 10, 2012, 05:46:23 PM
And no, the nurse had problems because she made a silly, elementary mistake which I can see myself making so very easily.

So true. And maybe this is one of the better mistakes for a nurse to make. Better to misjudge a privacy situation, than administer the wrong meds, for example.

One of the reasons I avoided the medical field. I'd rather my frequent mistakes be of the embarrassing sort instead of the life-threatening sort.