Nurse on receiving end of prank commits suicide

I'm not a fan of telephone pranks or practical jokes in general, as things can get out of hand far too quickly. However, a suicide is not a foreseeable consequence of a prank call, so I don't think the guys who made the call should be unreasonably vilified.

 

That is the one of the first things that sprang to my mind. I find it inconceivable that any well adjusted married woman with two teenage children would get fooled by a prank call at work, and subsequently kill herself because of it. Perhaps the prank call was the last straw, but even if that's what pushed her over the edge, there had to be other factors at work here. She didn't kill herself because of the prank call. She killed herself over a list of factors, the last of which may well have been the prank call.

On the list of possible fallout that could have been reasonably anticipated from the prank call, I don't think anyone would list suicide as a foreseeable event. Embarrassed? Sure. Enough to kill yourself? No way. And I don't blame the DJs at all. They were playing a joke.

 

I guess the DJs (who are from Australia I believe) were using silly accents and made a point of dwelling on the notion that the nurse should have easily caught on to that.

I'm kind of on the fence about it. I mean, I agree with Beren that it was tasteless, but I also agree that it's kind of foolish to think the DJs were fundamentally reckless for failing to consider that their target might commit suicide. If that's the standard, then all prank calls should be similarly regarded.

However, I disagree a bit about the certainty of mitigating factors in the nurse's life, unless you want to consider depression a mitigating factor, and if so a great many people are similarly at risk. They are 'normal' people in that they function day to day; they're just much closer to the edge on a nearly constant basis than the majority of people out there. Public humiliation and major social rejection can be very compelling forces in people's lives.

Like so many other things, I suspect it's simply a problem with no real solution. People should not be forced to tread delicately in all forms of social interaction for fear of harming others, and yet I think it's a distinctly sad reality that at-risk persons like this nurse are out there, and that many of them are never too far from pulling the plug.

(Note that I don't know that this lady was clinically depressed. I'm just assuming something was at play here that affected her judgement in a way that I think we all probably agree was unreasonable ... for a healthy person.)

 

I think she was the nurse that answered the questions.

I agree that the woman most likely had other issues but I don't mind the DJ's were fired. People should be held accountable for their actions ... even if the result was unforeseen.

I'm certain many of the teens who engage in cyberbullying believe it to only be "a joke." That does not lessen the severity.

 

Not only that, but what evidence is there that this is even what happened?

Healthy people don't usually tend to commit suicide over a simple mistake or embarrassment. I think a lot of things must happen in a person's mind to get them to that point.

And people's lives are complicated - a lot of factors from a lot of different directions can affect someone's state of mind, especially over longer periods of time, and many of them can go unnoticed even by friends and family.

Journalists (especially of tabloid newspapers) like to disregard the complexities of life and jump straight to conclusions. Not something one should emulate I think.

Maybe the nurse was indeed affected so deeply by the prank that it totally threw her off balance. Maybe it was the final straw that put her over the edge after already being suicidal. Maybe the prank had nothing whatsoever to do with the suicide at all. Maybe it wasn't even a suicide (the police report uses the word "suspected").
We just don't know.

 

It could even be a counter-prank gone horribly wrong. I've been trying to find more detailed reports, anything that says more than "nurse dies because of prank phone call - we know who did it, we know the details of the prank and we know that the result has everyone devastated" but so far nothing. I find this unusual.

I fail to see how a supposedly healthy mother would commit suicide over a prank. Last straw, probably.

 

Or the queen had here killed and it's a cover up

 

That part could be easily explained by her family not releasing much information to the media. They do retain their right of privacy. If all the press has to go on is the police report, then there's little else they can say about it.

 

Just for the sake of argument, if I run somebody over with my car without meaning to, I'm still held accountable - and that's without any ill intent. While I doubt that the DJs hoped anyone would kill themselves as a result of their prank, I'd have to think that their actions in this matter would be inherently more risky - even potentially negligent or hazardous - than me driving to work.

Doubtless that case will be made in the inevitable lawsuits that follow.

"... did negligently fail to exert that degree of care, caution, diligence, and prudence as would be demonstrated by a reasonably prudent person under the same or similar circumstances ..."

 

However, if you're driving down the road, and someone jumps in front of your car, you're not responsible.

The nurse was not responsible for the leak, not being blamed, disciplined, or criticised in any way. In fact she had done nothing wrong or against hospital policies.

The fact she chose to kill her self, whilst exceedingly selfish and tragic for her family, was her decision.

Choosing to vilify the radio presenters who also did nothing wrong and nothing different to what millions of other radio presenters have done, for the actions of a selfish individual is quite honestly vile.

After all, Jonathan Ross made a prank call on his radio show, but there certainly wasn't death threats made against him...

 

I stand corrected BTA. Even more reason to believe she had significant problems before all this happened.

I still agree with the DJ's being fired (or at least put on an extended leave of absense)....

 

I'll make more of a post on this when I get to my computer, only jumping in here to point out that the DJ's/radio station have infact broken the law, under the data protection act they obtained privileged, sensitive or confidential information by deception. most phone pranks are simply upsetting or annoying in this instance they have broken the law.