E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSDuring a hearing in London's Coroner's Court today, details were revealed about the cause of death of nurse Jacintha Saldanha shortly after she took a prank phone call to the Duchess of Cambridge, including that she left three handwritten notes. NBC's Keir Simmons reports.
Updated at 6:20 a.m. ET: LONDON — The nurse duped by two Australian radio show hosts into putting through a prank call to the hospital ward of the pregnant Duchess of Cambridge was found hanging by a scarf from a wardrobe, an official said Thursday.
Jacintha Saldanha, 46, was found by a colleague and a member of security staff at King Edward VII’s Hospital in the British capital on Friday, coroner's officer Lynda Martindill told a formal hearing into the circumstances of her death called an inquest.
Police detective chief inspector James Harman told the hearing that the married mother-of-two had injuries to her wrists.
He also said that three handwritten notes were found, two at the scene and one among her belongings.
As well as examining the notes, Harman said police were interviewing her friends, family and colleagues and looking at emails and phone calls to establish what led to her death, The Associated Press reported.
AFP - Getty Images
Nurse Jacintha Saldanha was found dead days after being hoaxed by an Australian radio show.
At the brief hearing, Coroner Fiona Wilcox opened and then adjourned the inquest until March 26 without making a ruling. Police have previously described the death as "unexplained."
Nurse who was duped by prank call about Duchess Kate found dead
Saldanha put the hoax call through to a colleague who disclosed details of the care given to Kate, who was being treated for acute morning sickness at the hospital.
The prank call by Sydney radio station 2Day FM made headlines around the world, as did news that Saldanha had died.
Southern Cross Austereo, the station’s parent company, has apologized for the stunt and said on Tuesday it would donate its advertising revenue until the end of the year to a fund for Saldanha's family, with a minimum contribution of about $525,000.
Royal prank radio station to pay $525,000 to family of dead nurse
However, British lawmaker Keith Vaz told Reuters that he had written to Southern Cross to express his dissatisfaction.
Neil Hall / Reuters
Tributes to nurse Jacintha Saldanha are seen outside the nurses' accommodation near the King Edward VII's Hospital in London on Tuesday.
"There has been no written apology, no request for a meeting with the family and no attempt to travel to the United Kingdom to express contrition," Vaz wrote in a letter to Southern Cross chief executive Rhys Holleran that he released to the media.
"I would be grateful if you could let me know how you arrived at this figure and why you think this adequately deals with this serious and important issue," Vaz wrote.
DJs speak out, say they're 'heartbroken' over death of nurse in royal hoax call
Southern Cross and its two DJs, Mel Greig and Michael Christian, have faced a barrage of criticism.
Greig and Christian have both been suspended and their show has been scrapped.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
Follow NBC News' Keir Simmons on Twitter.
More world stories from NBC News:
- Pope Benedict sends his first tweet
- ANALYSIS: 'Spoiled child' North Korea snubs key ally China with rocket test
- ANALYSIS: Egypt is rapidly approaching its own 'cliff'
- Nelson Mandela suffers recurrence of lung infection
- Banking giant HSBC to pay record $1.9 billion in money-laundering case
- Suspect in US envoy's killing in Libya arrested in Egypt
- Cuba's jailing of American contractor 'arbitrary,' UN panel concludes
- Nearly 900 left missing by Typhoon Bopha in the Philippines
- Video: Penguins in Tokyo take over as Santa's elves
Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook
Leave a Comment:
I have to agree with Lorielle. There is so much more to this story than this woman killing herself because of a prank call. Obviously, and sadly for her family, this woman was imbalanced. She must have been to have killed herself over a simple mishap like transferring a call. If anything, the nurse who gave out the confidential information would have more reason to be depressed or upset. This is not the fault of the DJs. Should they be reprimanded? Yes. Should they be vilified? No. Should they lose their job and their livelihood due to a dumb mistake? ABSOLUTELY NOT! People need to get a grip.
Wow, there really are a lot of heartless, thoughtless cretins on here. Just the kind of people the DJs were hoping to "entertain" with their prank. Guess they got more than they bargained for.
" 007 " DID IT !!!!!!!
As a health care professional, I can tell you that patient confidentiality is a huge standard. There are usually consequences for breaches of confidentiality including termination. Also the replaying over and over of the "prank" just continued the humiliation part of it because the nurse "fell for the prank". Would you like your name plastered all over the internet, which means the world, because you fell for a "prank" that demeaned your professionalism? The station is just as responsible as the DJs because they approved the "prank". We never know how someone will react to a situation, what emotional stresses they already have or what the consequences will be if the "stunt" is done in the arena of the person's work environment. Playing a joke on someone by a friend is a whole lot different than convincing someone to unknowingly make public confidential information in their professional work environment which results in their breaking a sacred trust.
As a healthcare professional I can tell you.....Take a breath. You take yourself way too seriously. This woman didn't give out confidential information. The whole f****g world knew that Kate was in the hospital and what she was in there for. The woman was unstable and it's not the fault of the radio DJ's that she snapped and hung herself.
Did you take your prozac today?
Well it looks like the consensus here is about 98% that she had other issues and I agree. If someone looks into her past they will probably find people that know she had major problems.
Is it me or am I the only one wondering how this changed from "Death my mysterious circumstances" to "Obvious Suicide" so quickly?
No, there are some of us who choose to be patient and objective instead of jumping to conclusions like a bunch of adolescent Phillistines. Unfortunately, we are the world's smallest minority.
...sorry for misspelling the word "Philistine."
This woman acted selfishly in killing herself. She probably had chronic depression and a host of other mental issues. A mentally normal person would not kill themselves over this. It was a simple and USUALLY harmless radio station prank, the likes of which are done and have been done for decades. Just because one unbalanced person goes off the deep end doesn't damn the whole industry. They didn't ridicule this woman. They didn't abuse her verbally or physically. This was HER REACTION to a prank. And it was an over-reaction, to say the least. She didn't think of the effect it would have on her family. For the radio station to pay her family is tantamount to an admission of guilt and opens them up to a lawsuit, which is most likely forthcoming, but which they will lose. This woman was a mentally unstable coward who selfishly acted impulsively. I bet she's up in heaven thinking..."Oops....maybe I shouldn't have done that."
How long are they going to blame a couple of stupid DJs for this? Royal family, tons of money, tons of security, yet no one to monitor incoming phone calls at the hospital? And then not one statement to take some of the blame off the working nurse before her death as anyone with any integrity would have done? And how about the media for saying what a terrible thing the goofy DJs had done and then printing every word of it over and over, and also blaming the nurse? Royal people are stuffy protectionists. They could care less as long as the finger doesn't point at them. Losers. Lets see if I dial up the Pres on his Hawaii vacation at the hotel and see how far my call goes... probably not very.
What they're doing to these two DJ's and radio station is BS. It was a harmless prank and there is no way they should or could be held responsible for this weak persons actions. I think there's more to this story. I bet everything I have that this woman's superiors at the hospital threatened to sack her. She was probably threatened by the British secret service as well. Anyone that would kill themselves over something like this obviously had deeper issues.
What a tragic, unfortunate event. I think the DJs should not have done that. Nor do I think the nurse should have killed herself, but no one knows how/if she was ridiculed or mocked after it happened. So what if she was already unstable? Her superiors could have already been in touch about reprimands; should could have been having problem after problem in her life. I'm sure a stronger person would have weathered the prank. But that just goes to show that pranks don't always turn out to be funny. I've never understood the need for radio DJs or others to make ppl look like fools, but to each his own...
My other issue with this is that Princess Diana's death was tragic enough. Why can't the media, DJs included, let the royal family have peace & privacy? Of course they were born into this life and of course they expect to be in the public eye, but why must the media always go overboard on the coverage? Let them be, for crying out loud.
Lessons learned for both sides in this issue.
"unexplained"?
Way to many of you are putting words out there that are not in the article. Suicide has not been mentioned except in the media. You don't get wrist injuries from hanging yourself. Unless you struggled with someone and they hung you. Notice they have not released autopsy findings yet either and they are investigating it. Her death was "unexplained". You have no idea what her life was like .... you don't know what she did the 48 hours before the call or the hours after the call. All could have added up to hear death and had nothing to do with the phone call. Way to many of you just see to dots and connect them thinking that that's how it is and it isn't.
I have to agree with most who say this poor woman probably had other issues. She was not the one who gave out any information, all she did was transfer the prank call to another. The hospital said they were not going to reprimand her or fire her because of this and a spokeperson for the Royal Family said were had not asked for an investigation into the prank call.
Someone on another thread wrote "how would you like to go thru the rest of your life labeled as the one who fell for this prank." My gosh, millions fall for pranks every day. Look at the old MTV show Punked. I doubt we would have ever known this woman's name had she not killed herself. I do not believe that the media even gave out her name initially when the call was made public (but, I could be wrong about that). Was her embarrassment enough that it has left her children without a mother and her husband without a wife?
I absolutely agree with those who say something else was going on. Ok, it may have been a stupid prank, but so what? It wasn't by any means a vicious or slanderous or nasty prank...just a silly stupid prank. Stop with the crucifying of these poor DJs. Tell them not to pull pranks again and let them get on with there lives. This woman, Jacintha Saldanha, clearly was having problems that we are totally unaware of...something else would have set her off, if not this. Any woman with a family including 2 children, would never in a million years have taken her own life over something this innocent and unimportant! She simply transferred the call, for heaven sakes! And, this British "lawmaker", Keith Vaz, has got to be on drugs! He said the amount of money that the radio station was offering the family ($525,00!) was not enough! Are you kidding me? Yes it is a tragic loss for that family, but certainly not the responsibility of that radio station or their DJs. Someone needs to come forward and explain that she was mentally unbalanced or whatever. These people (DJs and radio station) need to be taken off the hot coals and applauded for their concerns and quick, kind response to a sad situation!
I wonder if possibly it was cultural....? As in she caused great shame to her family. (or something like that)
The DJs are not responsible. The royals should be treated like everyone else. People should stop kissing up to them.
Italian prosecutors have already stated this was another 'sex game gone wrong', and want to jail the DJ's from Australia for planting 'subliminal thoughts' that caused this tragedy. The real tragedy is that it is no longer safe to tell the Italians anything.
Her job was to screen calls and then forward them. the next person then , more likely takes it as legitimate. you dont just hire someone to answer the phone and route calls, you are supposed to screen as best you can. that said, if it were a constant hounding, that would be grounds, like a stalking charge, to face criminal charges. One time and the person taking their own life is extreme. If I were the husband I would press for maybe 1.5 mil while the story is hot, drop her body in the ground and go take a nice vaca with the kids.
She was a nurse, I doubt her job was to screen phone calls. The DJs likely just dilaed random numbers at the hospital. They said they had talked with several poeple who hung up on them. She did not release any confidential information, just forwarded the call. THe next person in line, who actaully gave out the information, is the one who violated patieant privacy.
The marks on her wrists they mentioned could be scars from pervious suicide attempts. They didn't say they were new/fresh marks, at least not that they mentioned in this article.
Another post was upset at 'blaming the victim.' I firmly believe that she is the only person who should be blamed. This nurse DID NOT commit suicide over the phone call, she committed suicide because she was seriously mentally ill and depressed. Normal people DO NOT kill themselves because of one silly phone call. I don't think the radio station owes her family anything nor should the DJs be prosecuted. That's just stupid. I'm sorry the nurse killed herself. I'm sorry her family did not see her depression in time to help her. But to blame the DJs, is just wrong.
The only thing dumber than the DJs and their prank, is the nurse taking her life over it. What is this some sort of Honor system?
MURDER. Pure and simple.
I agree to some of the authors here, there must be an underlying problem to this nurse that made her snap. Maybe she found her husband having an affair and she's depressed about that, or she's having early symptoms of pre-menopausal syndrome? Only she knew the reason for the suicide because there's really nothing to it. She did not release any records of patient-hospital confidentiality, but just transferred the call! If she's of sound mind and in stable condition, she would be thinking about her family first and the impact she'd put them through by ending her life over the little mishap of a silly prank call!
Ops artsylady beat me to it :)
She was mentally ill and nothing simple about that. You just don't know when it is broken and can't fix it most of the time.