Jacintha was a nurse at a top private hospital. Such a good hospital, that royalty used it when needed.
At 5:30 in the morning, one presumes towards the end of a long shift, the phone rang.
Quite why she answered it, rather than a telephonist, is not clear. maybe at that time in the morning, she was just close by, and took the call. The voice on the other end of the phone may well have sounded like the Queen at 5:30 in the morning. Having never had such a call, I wouldn't know.
So she put the call through to the Duchess of Cambridges suite. Where another nurse, presumably believing it to be the Queen herself, revealed details of the Duchess' condition.
This was probably wrong even if it was the Queen, but I am not sure I would have been the one to tell Her Majesty no. The staff are, I presume, used to important and powerful people using the facilities of the hospital, and calling for updates. That makes me wonder why there was not better security precautions, but, on the other hand, it does mean that having the Queen phone up is not an unreasonable eventuality.
The caller was, of course, a DJ from an Australian radio show, making a spoof call. People have said, hearing it over the radio, that it was clearly a spoof, that the voice was not very good etc. That is an easy judgement to make listening to a radio-quality recording, but over the phone at 5:30 in the morning is a different situation.
2 days later, Jacintha appears to have taken her own life.
It is not yet completely clear whether she did kill herself, or that the spoof call prompted this, but both would appear to be the case. This is a tragic end to a stupid prank. And it highlights very pointedly the dangers of this sort of prank - someone is made to look stupid.
Now anyone who has worked with me knows that I have no problem with making jokes at other peoples expense. But I am always careful not to humiliate people, not to make them feel stupid or worthless. I am never cruel in my humour, or when I am, I apologise, because that is not the point. It sometimes takes me a while to understand a new work colleague, to know what I can get away with and what I can't. In case you are wondering, yes I do get as good coming back at me, and take it in good humour. My experience is that it builds some great camaraderie - within the sort of people I work with, at least.
The truth is that this event, traumatic and challenging as it undoubtedly was for all of those involved, is not the entire story. I am sure that Jacintha had some history of problems, and may have been suffering from depression. It may be that she had some job history of small mistakes, or lack of attention. I don't know, and I don't care. What I do know is that she was working as a nurse, a profession that demands a whole lot from people - more than I could give - and often returns comparatively little. Nobody gets rich or famous from being a nurse, and yet our medical services would simply not function without them. the excellent sitcom Getting On showed this difficult role brilliantly well.
At some point, Jacintha felt that she could not continue, and her only option was to end her own life. That is a desperate position to be in, a terrible state to have arrived at. And yet many people hit that judgement daily and weekly. Some people do end it, while others don't - sometimes, the ones who do are the stronger ones. Some people live with the reality that their life does not appear to be worth living for weeks, months, years. Some people have to live with a member of their family having taken their life, something that stays with you forever.
Suicide is a terrible action, for all involved. To have been finally driven to this by a prank call is especially tragic. My thoughts are with her family - including young children - and friends, who have to deal with this in the glare of publicity.
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It is so common today that people feel no shame or embarrassment for their actions primarily media people (either print, tv, or radio). Anyone with any sense of pride in their work would take this as a serious breach of work ethics or protocol. I can see the nurse's feeling of disrespect for patient confidentiality once the prank came to light. The "pranksters" need to have a consequence of more than just feeling bad. They were ultimately responsible for the nurse's feelings of failure in her duties.
ReplyDeleteGreetings from malik3000, a fellow member of Ship of Fools. It was very tragic what happened to the nurse. When i first heard about it, i did not think however that one needed to be overly harsh on the 2 radio people. My thought was that, while silly and childish it was really quite trivial (big deal if they are "the royals", they go to the bathroom like everyone else). Even then of course i felt really bad for the nurse, because one can never for 100% sure know anyone's mental or emotional state. Later on i read that they had apparently done other pranks that were not so trivial-appearing, so perhaps it was long-overdue for them to be taken off the air. If it were on the basis of this one event i would not condemn them -- i don't they could have predicted such an extreme reaction. But as you say it was tragic for the young woman who felt driven to this, and to her loved ones.
ReplyDeleteI have tried hard not to blame the two hosts. they have some culpability, and they do, I believe, feel genuinely shocked by the events.
DeleteThe "blame", such as it is, has to be spread far wider. Not least - with the latest information - with the station executives who allowed the recording to go out.