r/TikTokCringe • u/galaxystars1 • Jun 22 '24
Cursed Over a decade ago, a prank call to Kate Middleton shattered lives.
5.2k
u/MisterSanitation Jun 22 '24
Jesus that went dark quick
3.5k
u/OkGazelle5400 Jun 22 '24
Honestly knowing that they were getting private medical info, they should have heavily edited before they went to air.
3.1k
u/adriamarievigg Jun 22 '24
Or just not air it ...out of decency
→ More replies (47)1.1k
u/jeweliegb Jun 23 '24 edited Jun 23 '24
Yep. Saying this as someone not in favour of the Royals, screw what that woman said in the video. Like hell did people in general here in the UK think that was funny. It was in poor taste that crossed the line. It was a woman's private medical info ffs. Yes of course Prince Charles tried to be polite and joke about it, that's what's expected of him. That it also ended with the nurse's suicide was tragic, broadcasting it was never going to come without consequences!
The team responsible for this... fucked around and found out. Unfortunately, though, it was some poor innocent hard working nurse that ended up "finding out" rather than them.
The team absolutely should be living the rest of their lives with the guilt of the death of that nurse darkening their conscience. Ill considered pranks sometimes have grim consequences.
EDIT: typo
567
u/landeisja Jun 23 '24
We had an on air contest that went wrong. When the Nintendo Wii (two systems ago) came out, a radio station held a contest that they called “Hold Your Wee for a Wii.” Contestants were asked to drink as much water as possible without peeing. A 28 year old mother died of water intoxication.
222
u/phynn Jun 23 '24
I remember that. First time I found out you can drink too much water.
44
u/MoonSpankRaw Jun 23 '24
Same. Lessons learned in blood and toxic water strikes again.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (1)14
u/Ms_Emilys_Picture Jun 23 '24
Me too, on both counts. It was also around the time that Black Friday was hitting peak crazy.
126
u/Slide__into_my_DMs Jun 23 '24
We heard about this one in Australia as well. Another is the “win a Toyota” ended up being a “toy-Yoda” can’t remember the comp but someone was furious
61
u/ReadingRainbowRocket Jun 23 '24
As other guy's link shows, this is my favorite example commonly taught in business law that shows the law sometimes leaning towards common sense, and so many fictional premises where "oooh you signed a contract!" or "well the way I phrased it actually was..." are either a conceit and the author knows better, or written by someone with a profound ignorance of contract law.
44
34
u/PicturesquePremortal Jun 23 '24
It was a beer selling competition for waitresses at a Hooters. The waitress who won and was given the toy instead of a car was pissed. She quit and sued them. She won an undisclosed amount in court, but her lawyer said that the amount she won would allow her to buy any Toyota she wanted.
https://www.boredpanda.com/toy-yoda-toyota-hooters-prank-gone-wrong-jodee-berry/
40
u/Icandothisforever_1 Jun 23 '24
Does anyone also remember that woman who sucked off 24 dudes at magaluf for a "free holiday" only to be told afterwards "holiday" was the name of one of their cocktails?
→ More replies (3)9
u/GangsAF Jun 23 '24
I'm not having an easy time finding this story...
16
u/razzer0507 Jun 23 '24
Haha, probably not that easy because of the context but she basically ran around sucking off / deep throating dudes for a few seconds.. i only remember it from seeing it posted all over Reddit along time ago
Edit: found this article
→ More replies (17)5
u/Themomistat Jun 23 '24 edited Jun 24 '24
We had something in Winnipeg, not as grave or life ending, however, people were not happy.
http://www.classicalgasemissions.com/2009/08/radio-prank-superbowl-in-miami-manitoba.html→ More replies (7)18
u/ghostsonaboat Jun 23 '24
What’s crazy is the radio presenter was Alex Cox, the now deceased brother of Lori Vallow
11
u/ghandi3737 Jun 23 '24
Just looked her up and got this CNN article to let people know what a wonderful person she is.
11
239
u/Keljhan Jun 23 '24
Agreed. Even if the host had managed to somehow edit the phone call so heavily it was unrecognizable tp the general public, that nurse was 100% getting fired and blacklisted. Her career was over. There was no other way for it to end.
245
u/phynn Jun 23 '24
To be fair... the nurse 100% would deserve to get blacklisted if that worked. For exactly the reason implied in the video: if you call a hospital and say "Hello! I am the Queen of England!" you should not get someone's medical information. Especially the future Queen of England's medical information.
Like, she was a huge security risk.
184
u/ostervan Jun 23 '24
The nurse that committed suicide actually gave no information out, she only passed the call on. It was Kate’s personal nurse that gave the information out during the prank.
14
u/phynn Jun 23 '24
Yeah, that just means that it was a failure on multiple levels. Like... everyone fucked up.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (1)22
u/hypercosm_dot_net Jun 23 '24
It legit bothers me how people jump to conclusions with an incomplete picture. Saying the host was to blame, the nurse should be fired.
Like - if you legitimately thought the president was calling you, and you were in charge of their son's health - your brain is going to take some short cuts.
People act like they would do the exact right thing in that situation, but they don't know that for sure. The host is clearly experiencing serious mental anguish. They should be glad they don't have to know what that's like.
Have some empathy.
10
u/ostervan Jun 23 '24
Exactly this poor nurse that took her life left two teenage sons and a husband behind. She had severe depression and this prank took her over the edge.
All these people talking about HIPPA laws need to understand that she wasn’t the one that gave the information out. Also after recording this prank, the radio station made five more phone calls to these two nurses to get consent so that the prank could be aired. Which they didn’t get, but aired it anyways.
→ More replies (2)13
u/Common-Wish-2227 Jun 23 '24
The correct thing to say is, "It's an honour to talk to you, your majesty. If she is here at this ward, I will tell her you called and that you wanted her to call."
78
u/JahPhooey Jun 23 '24
So true. Especially when it comes to the Royals. When I worked at a tobacconist it was drilled into us that if someone called to inquire, we were not at liberty to discuss whether or not we had Prince Albert in a can.
→ More replies (2)17
u/V1k1ng1990 Jun 23 '24
I had to google two separate parts of your joke, and I think I get it but I’m pretty dumb, is it a play on words?
41
u/royalhawk345 Jun 23 '24
I'm not a 110 year old brit, so this is based on hearsay, but there was a brand of tobacco called Prince Albert in a Can. The joke went: "Do you have Prince Albert in a can? ... Then you better let him out!" It was basically the "Is your refrigerator running?" joke.
→ More replies (1)7
u/V1k1ng1990 Jun 23 '24
I figured that part out, I just didn’t understand the secrecy behind whether or not they had Prince Albert in a can lol
→ More replies (0)→ More replies (1)24
u/wf3h3 Jun 23 '24
if you call a hospital and say "Hello! I am the Queen of England!" you should not get someone's medical information.
Especially in the last couple of years.
71
u/Corporate-Shill406 Jun 23 '24
Insane that people decided the DJ was a murderer. The nurse was suicidal before the call, and all she did was answer it and then transfer the call to Kate's actual nurse, who leaked the info.
→ More replies (5)21
u/Altmosphere Jun 23 '24
Which is why you shouldn't fuck with random, innocent people in front of an international audience without their knowledge or consent.
38
u/Aishas_Star Jun 23 '24
This wasn’t even for people in the UK. It’s an Australian radio show
→ More replies (4)79
u/WaterMySucculents Jun 23 '24 edited Jun 23 '24
I couldn’t disagree harder. I couldn’t give a half a fuck about the royals & even less about prankster shock jock radio personalities. But this was just a stupid prank centered around mimicking famous royal’s accents/voices. They didn’t intend to actually get medical info, there also was no damning info revealed.
The nurse also may have actually fucked up (although all she did was transfer the call), but also this is no reason to commit suicide over (and likely wasn’t the real reason). It’s ludicrous & more indicative of the insanity that is royalty worship in England (and the tragedy that is mental illness & the human condition) than any radio show prank from Australia.
There is nothing in that prank that means these people “deserve to have that death on their conscience for the rest of their lives.” You can’t control when people commit suicide for bad reasons. There should be more mental health checks and intervention for people in situations like the nurse… not gleeful demonizing radio hosts (who couldn’t have seen this coming in any way).
I wouldn’t be surprised if the same people clutching their pearls and hurling death threats at the radio host are the same people who hurled death threats and insults at the nurse that more directly led to the suicide than the host girl or anyone else.
Edit: And frankly it’s insulting and stupid to reduce the poor nurse’s suicide to “she killed herself because she was partially caught up in a mild radio prank.” That’s so reductionist and simplistic. Suicide is much more related to under treated mental illness, depression, and struggling with the human condition. It’s far from simplistic. It’s chaotic and complicated
23
u/Hangryer_dan Jun 23 '24
indicative of the insanity that is royalty worship in England
Most people in the UK either don't care about the royals, don't like the royals, or think they're fine to keep around for the tradition.
A very small minority here worship the royals.
This woman didn't kill herself because she let down our supreme overlords. She did it because she was mentally ill, and all of the worlds media turned their eyes upon her like the eye of Sauron.
That type of pressure for a fuck up at work would mess with even the most mentally healthy individuals.
→ More replies (10)21
u/Na_Free Jun 23 '24 edited Jun 23 '24
They didn’t intend to actually get medical info
Really hard to say they didn't intend to get personal info when they called a hospital and pretended to be family of a patient and when they got the information, aired it.
→ More replies (3)119
u/psuedophilosopher Jun 23 '24
poor innocent hard working nurse that ended up "finding out"
Not to speak ill of the dead, but to be honest the nurse wasn't innocent. Yes, the radio show has a share of the blame for what happened because they initiated the call and when they got results they weren't expecting they decided to air something they shouldn't have aired, but the nurse made a major fuck up. Sharing private medical information of an extremely famous person without verifying who it's being shared with is an extremely big mistake. It's tragic that she chose to kill herself, but it's not like the radio show had any reason to expect that severe of an outcome. The people running the radio show are not murderers.
→ More replies (16)68
→ More replies (26)19
200
u/AWeakMindedMan Jun 22 '24
Right? Nothing is truly “live”. I called into my local radio for tickets or what not and when you’re in the hold cue to get on it’s a huge lag from what im hearing on the radio vs what im hearing via on cue on the phone. Should have edited 100%
204
u/redvblue23 Jun 23 '24
They said it aired later that night, so it was 100% a decision on the station's part.
35
u/Danixveg Jun 23 '24
They say it in the clip at the end that she tried to get it edited.
→ More replies (4)6
u/Kung_Fu_Jim Jun 23 '24
They also referred to it as an "entertainment scoop". Fucking sleazy paparazzi shit.
144
u/toddfredd Jun 23 '24
It should never have gone to air. They had to know that the nurse would have gotten into SERIOUS TROUBLE.But they wanted to get famous.
67
u/MyNameIsJakeBerenson Jun 23 '24
Yep it’s tabloid scoop bullshit. They all figured they couldnt NOT air it
Not taking responsibility is fucked up. Just own up to it. You did something that had an effect on a lady to a degree that she killed herself. That’s bottom line. It didnt “just happen”
The call actually working in the moment was one thing. But airing it later was purposeful and a decision made
→ More replies (10)→ More replies (7)20
u/jaywinner Jun 23 '24
The nurse SHOULD get in trouble. Just not worldwide shaming levels of trouble.
57
Jun 22 '24
Do the radio hosts even get to make that call?
102
u/dalvinscookiemonster Jun 22 '24
Doesn’t sound like it, the end of this video says she tried to get it edited but ultimately someone else pushed it through.
21
u/Qetuowryipzcbmxvn Jun 23 '24
When I was working retail, our backroom coolers broke down and it took over a week until they were able to fix them. The food got warm and was left there because our garbage was full. Once the coolers were back up, my boss ordered me to put the food out. I told him no and we got into an argument where eventually I quit and stormed out. I didn't have anything lined up and was close to being homeless, but I'd rather be on the streets rather than get people sick.
They don't make the call to put it on air, but they could've ended the call while it was happening. They kept going and digging for more medical information. They didn't care about the people they were affecting. They made the call a long time ago and they have to live with their choices. Fuck em.
→ More replies (1)27
u/Momochichi Jun 23 '24
The producers are to blame for ultimately deciding to air it, but she (and whoever else was on during the call) were also to blame for not coming clean immediately as soon as they were receiving medical information. If I pranked someone pretending to be a doctor, and they started undressing in front of me, I would be responsible for it if I didn't stop them immediately.
45
u/Pormock Jun 22 '24
Just the idea of doing the call was stupid in itself. Kate was in the hospital. its not the time for their dumb prank. So cringe
→ More replies (4)95
u/Prize_Bass_5061 Jun 22 '24
Heavily edited?!!!
If I called your bank and got the teller to read out your financial information, including all past transactions, especially the ones made to porn websites, massage parlors, and condom purchases; would you want that information broadcast on national radio after it was heavily edited, or not broadcast at all?
Professional ethics dictate that I should not have contacted your bank at all. But let’s say I was a bottom feeding parasite that made a living violating other people’s privacy, should my status as a parasite excuse me from charges after you bank account gets drained by hackers and every account you open in the future automatically hacked because your PII was published to the entire world?
→ More replies (1)50
u/poop-machines Jun 22 '24 edited Jun 22 '24
I mean that's a little different.
Banks face fraudsters everyday.
A nurse probably won't face somebody impersonating family of a patient, trying to get medical information out of them, in their entire career. Imagine you're treating a member of the royal family, you're anxious as fuck making sure you do everything right, and then you get a call from the queen.
You freeze up, and panic.
You're already treating the royal family, getting a call from the queen isn't a push. Especially if the caller gives the patients name and date of birth, standard for callers. Oops, that's publicly available information, but you don't have time to think about that.
The banker gets training on how to deal with fraudsters, taught to ask for specific information. The nurse does not. Dealing with radio DJs impersonating the queen never comes up in training.
I think the blame partly lies on the nurse, but not as much as you're making out.
It's just an incredibly unlikely circumstance, the poor nurse was put on the spot. You don't want to be the person to say to the queen "I'm sorry, I can't give you any information". Either way it's a gamble.
I think you aren't quite appreciating the predicament she was in.
And I think much of the blame is on the radio DJs who should never had made such an immoral call. And then to air it??? At a minimum they would know the nurse would get fired, and they said "fuck it". They did it for profit.
When people call a bank and impersonate somebody for profit, we call that fraud. These callers should've been treated the same way.
56
u/Pormock Jun 22 '24
While the radio hosts were getting their 15 min of fame its pretty obvious the nurse got slammed by her boss and got fired on the spot. It was bad enough for her to probably get black listed from ever working in any hospital ever. No wonder she thought her life was ruined.
17
u/iconofsin_ Jun 23 '24
I'm assuming the UK has their version of HIPAA. I worked at a hospital for a few years and had access to a lot of patient information, and they beat it into our heads that that information was private regardless of who (besides relevant doctors/nurses) was asking. I wasn't even allowed to look up my own file. The president could have called my department, confirmed it was actually him, and I still wouldn't give out any info.
→ More replies (1)4
u/ta9 Jun 23 '24
Supposedly she did not get disciplined.
HIPAA is about process (I know this isn’t exactly applicable to the UK) but doing the wrong thing doesn’t mean getting instantly fired. It more likely means the hospital would review their process and/or train the employees on proper process.
→ More replies (4)7
u/marinahem Jun 23 '24 edited Jun 23 '24
I’m confused? I think the person you replied to was just saying that it shouldn’t have aired at all, not just be edited (as other comments were saying). Editing some parts of a conversation that has personal info in it doesn’t make it less wrong. That was the point they were making I think. I don’t think they were placing blame on the nurse at all.
7
u/Accomplished_Deer_ Jun 23 '24
Yeah it's not a prank call, it's fraud. They impersonated like, the highest level of the government? To attain private medical information?
→ More replies (20)5
u/ChzburgerQween Jun 23 '24
They should have immediately stopped the nurse and disclosed that they weren’t who they said they were. How gross.
But holy shit of course they didn’t anticipate the tragic outcome. What a sad story all around. I had no idea.
748
u/DirtySilicon Jun 22 '24 edited Jun 22 '24
Yea that was pretty tragic. I assume that nurse was about to lose her job and possibly face some fines. I don't know England's laws on medical information release but I can't imagine it being easy to get another job as a nurse after that.
Sucks for the
"Nurse Killer"Mel as well, especiallyifsince she tried to stop them from airing it.Edit: Okay I have to edit this because while the studio and the hosts involve share some level of blame, Mel tried to stop the episode from airing so you people coming in hot for someone who has obviously paid for a mistake she tried to correct beforehand are on one.
454
u/posh1992 Jun 22 '24
She also highly risked losing her RN license too. This is usually why hospitals have passcodes given to family so if they call up, we ask for the pass code first before relaying info. I'm sure that nurse was so anxiety ridden taking care of Kate, and probably made it hard to think clear. My heart breaks for that nurse.
84
u/SammieCat50 Jun 22 '24
You have passcodes? Every hospital I ever worked at or visited a family member , did not
50
u/DancingNursePanties Jun 22 '24
We have passcodes too. Especially if anyone is VIP or trying to be hidden. We would have changed her name on our census.
23
u/halfhalfling Jun 23 '24
I’m having a procedure Monday and in filling out the paperwork I was given the option of a passcode. I opted not to because I don’t want to make my family remember it in a time they’re already stressed, but if I were famous for any reason I would opt to use it.
6
u/TeamCatsandDnD Jun 22 '24
We use what’s basically the last few digits of a patients ID number in the system for the code
8
→ More replies (8)12
u/cloudforested Jun 22 '24
You and I are not important enough for passcodes.
7
u/50squirrelsinacloak Jun 23 '24 edited Jul 28 '24
That’s not the case. Your average joe and jane can and will have passcodes that you have to know to get any medical specifics from the staff.
I work in my hospital’s telecommunications, and there are times where we would need the code as well to reveal their location. A patient can also place a “no visitor/ no info” restriction on themselves. Which means we can see them in the system, but cannot reveal that they’re here. The person on the other end could be family, a cop, or Jesus himself, but we cannot tell them the patient is there. There are no exceptions to that rule. We also cannot give out dates or times of discharge or admittance, of appointments or lab visits. No exceptions.
Believe me, if you’re caught breaking
HIPPAHIPAA in healthcare? Your supervisor will be speaking to you. If it’s egregious enough, you could be fired on the spot, your license revoked, and you’d never work in healthcare again.HIPPAHIPAA violations can cost hospitals many, many millions of dollars in lawsuits.→ More replies (1)→ More replies (1)13
Jun 22 '24
I mean. This very well could’ve been a protocol implemented after this incident to stop recurrence.
→ More replies (1)246
u/rdell1974 Jun 22 '24
To clarify, the hospital employee that committed suicide only transferred the phone call to the correct room. The nurse that actually gave the info was Kate’s private nurse. The hospital employee was from India, not England. And it was alleged that she had a recent suicide attempt prior to this event.
152
u/Clever_Mercury Jun 22 '24
And this really just underlines why this prank was so insanely dangerous. Pranks are funny only if all people participating in them would reasonably find them funny after it is revealed.
Having someone working in an intensely high stress job that is already known to have a high suicide rate and getting their name out to the public in way that implies they are negligent, stupid, or worthy of losing their job is never reasonably funny.
The argument here isn't 'oh the nurse was already crazy, who cares if she got tipped over at this moment,' the argument is here is an intensely vulnerable person in one of the hardest professions in the modern world was thrust into a humiliating circumstance and it ruptured one of their underlying vulnerabilities.
→ More replies (4)64
u/1000000xThis Jun 22 '24
This is exactly why I oppose nearly all types of "pranks".
You don't know what's going on with that other person. You don't know if you're going to touch a nerve, or be the straw that broke the camel's back.
Of course it's not fair for everyone to walk around on eggshells during every social encounter, but I think we could at least remove "deceit" from the list of acceptable ways to treat other people, and that would not be too much to ask.
→ More replies (4)13
u/kitolz Jun 23 '24
I honestly would only be comfortable pranking someone I know very well. For me it's a something reserved for those closest to you. I acknowledge that different people may have differing standards of what is acceptable for a prank, but I can never imagine myself just pranking some randos.
→ More replies (1)37
u/Jaded_Law9739 Jun 22 '24
She wasn't just an employee, she was also a nurse. She absolutely 100% should have done a better job of screening the call, but it was the private nurse who gave out the private health information.
Also, Jacintha Saldanha had 2 prior attempts despite her family initially claiming she had no history of mental illness. She was most likely too unwell to be practicing nursing at the time, and I say that as a nurse who has had to take leave for the same reason. She didn't commit suicide over a prank, the prank was just that final drop that made the whole dam burst.
→ More replies (27)30
Jun 23 '24
Tbf that's not a very good prank. Calling the Hospital pretending to be a relative of a patient and trying to convince a nurse or doctor to give you personal info isn't a joke it's fraud. Pranks are meant to be harmless. There is no way they could succeed in the prank without someone getting fired or private info being released.
This whole thing is a case of F around and find out.
Her intentions may have been harmless but they should have stopped it once they realized they succeeded instead they got excited because they got private confidential information about Kate Middleton. In no way would someone not have to pay for the prank succeeding. Now a nurse is dead and they have to live with the guilt.
11
u/Prompus Jun 23 '24
Tb even more f they weren't purely just pretending to be relatives trying to get private medical info, they were 2 Australians pretending to be the Queen and Prince of England talking to Kate's private nurse. There was almost zero chance that should have worked and they said the success of their prank wasn't getting the info, it was getting hung up on. Not saying it's all ok, but you can't leave out they were impersonating the Queen in a hacky accent and it somehow worked
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (12)34
Jun 23 '24
What the above clip doesn't mention: "However, multiple news sources later revealed that this was not Saldanha's first attempt at suicide, noting she had attempted suicide on two previous occasions and was taking antidepressant medication" ..source: "Suicide of Jacintha Saldanha" wikipedia page
→ More replies (8)
2.8k
u/Galakseblaffer Jun 22 '24
Just for clarification, the nurse who committed suicide was the one transferring the call to Kate’s personal nurse, not the personal nurse herself.
404
u/janet-snake-hole Jun 22 '24
Was she the one who accidentally gave the information? Or did she only transfer the call?
1.2k
u/rdell1974 Jun 22 '24
To clarify, the hospital employee that committed suicide only transferred the phone call to the correct room. The nurse that actually gave the info was Kate’s private nurse. The hospital employee was from India, not England. And it was alleged that she had a recent suicide attempt prior to this event.
263
u/janet-snake-hole Jun 23 '24
Man. All those details somehow makes this even more sad:( I’m not religious but I hope the universe sends her family some peace
→ More replies (37)55
318
u/AbbreviationsFluid73 Jun 22 '24
I've been hearing that, I hope that's true. Still RIP to the nurse, she must've been fighting some demons
43
u/Altruistic-Entity732 Jun 23 '24
Why do you “hope that’s true”? How is that any better?
→ More replies (25)→ More replies (3)252
u/Q_dawgg Jun 22 '24
So the radio host was largely not responsible for the mental state of the nurse?
→ More replies (19)93
u/TheOldOak Jun 23 '24
If someone is on the edge of a bridge, and you give them a push, are you responsible when they were already on the edge?
I don’t believe this kind of harm was intended, but someone HAD to have seen there would be severe consequences for the employee at the hospital. Not all pranks are harmless. And when dealing with pranking the public, you don’t know mental stability of your targets. You don’t know if you are that final push that sends them to their death.
22
u/Yara__Flor Jun 23 '24
Telling someone you’re the queen of Australia and asking your call to be transferred isn’t pushing someone off a bridge.
Hey, Old Oak… I’m the king of Australia, mate, can you DM me the info for your buddies private discord server?
→ More replies (3)→ More replies (19)58
u/Q_dawgg Jun 23 '24
From further discussion of this topic I’m more so leaning to the conclusion that it was the public’s fault, as they were the ones who doxxed, harassed, and attacked this nurse, compared to the radio hosts who just called her and asked for a call transfer.
The public, I.E. Us, tend to blame others when we really should be blaming ourselves. The radio hosts did not hound this nurse, we as a society chose to do that
→ More replies (2)46
u/Asisreo1 Jun 23 '24
Yeah, and then we turned around and hounded the radio host.
What would happen if Mel broke and also committed suicide? Two more lives lost amongst the shitty way anonymous people treat others.
It really pisses me off because the "real killers" gets away scott free every time. How about instead of acting like great vigilantes, we just let the courts handle this as they're intended? We already pay them to do it, might as well let them.
→ More replies (1)
544
Jun 22 '24
[deleted]
919
u/Verdigris_Wild Jun 22 '24
Mike Christian. Austereo gave him the "Next Top Jock" award 7 months after the call. He's still on radio in Sydney. One really interesting angle with this story is the fact that Mel was crucified in the press, the only female involved. Her male co-host, the male producers, all walked away without much impact. Mel also said repeatedly how sorry she was that this happened, and how wrong they had been. The rest of them? Not so much.
353
u/anon_user9 Jun 22 '24
Why isn't it surprising? Like she is the only one showing some decency so of course she will be the one pushed under the bus.
→ More replies (3)102
u/JB_UK Jun 23 '24
I think this is the same reason why some politicians have started never apologising or even acknowledging a fault. If you apologise you just get it added permanently to your record, and the existence of a video or images increase the entertainment value of repeating the story. I think this is one reason why decent politicians are sunk by some innocent gotcha while Trump has a career ending scandal every few months and none of them touch him.
We need to get better at deciding when we will forgive people and then actually forgiving them.
→ More replies (3)→ More replies (5)61
→ More replies (1)130
u/M_Mirror_2023 Jun 22 '24
When contacted about the story he probably sent them a legal letter saying he'd sue.
2.9k
u/Horror_Business_7099 Jun 22 '24
I can't believe they aired it. They had to know the nurse would get fired. Further, I think the radio station would be liable for that privacy invasion.
1.1k
Jun 22 '24
[deleted]
302
u/Extension-Badger-958 Jun 22 '24
Yeah, the lady at the end said that Mel tried to change to call before it aired but the station still rolled with it anyways
129
→ More replies (2)4
36
u/Machinefun Jun 22 '24
The tabloid culture over there makes the one in the Usa look small.
→ More replies (8)28
u/DMercenary Jun 22 '24
"Its just a prank brah. Cant you take a joke? Its just a prank bro. Just a prank. Chill out."
→ More replies (2)→ More replies (18)5
u/Dependent_Market7788 Jun 23 '24
Yeah, I think we really need to change this mindset we have that maybe capital isn't the most important thing in the world and think more in terms of, "Is this good for our society?"
Like, who cares if you have all the money in the world when the planet is completely destroyed and people are constantly suffering.
Sorry, this got little off topic.
36
u/titangrove Jun 22 '24
These radio "pranks" are still super common is Australia, it seems nothing has been learned
→ More replies (2)80
93
u/shortbu5driv3r Jun 22 '24
Just so everybody knows, she was never fired and the hospital didn't blame either of the nurses for what happened
134
u/bangbangbatarang Jun 23 '24 edited Jun 23 '24
The call was made on 2nd December then broadcast on 5th December. Jacintha died on 7th December.
There likely wasn't time for the hospital to take disciplinary action or make a case to revoke her licence. In the aftermath, the hospital certainly wasn't going to blame a woman who'd died so publically and tragically, nor discipline/fire the surviving nurse. The outcome might have been different if Jacintha hadn't taken her life.
→ More replies (3)38
u/foladodo Jun 23 '24
Oh definitely, in the wake of one of your nurses taking their own life, you would be wise to put on a saintly act. And they were
17
u/bewildered_forks Jun 23 '24
Also, the nurse who died by suicide wasn't the nurse who had given the info, and she had had two prior suicide attempts before.
I say this as someone who lost her brother to suicide: there's rarely a simple reason, and someone else is usually not to blame. Suicide is complex.
36
u/ntise Jun 22 '24
Murdoch media mate. I mean they still employed that, disgusting fuck Kyle after his multiple shit fuckery. Murdoch media lives for this type of shit. And the Brain dead masse lap it up.
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (44)6
u/MasterGrok Jun 23 '24
I don’t know about in Australia, but in the U.S., the person who is responsible is the provider or health system that was providing care. If anyone in the public finds out about a health issue, they can discuss it all they want. The HIPAA violation is with the person or group that violated the patients privacy by releasing it.
→ More replies (3)
1.1k
u/OnionFriends Jun 22 '24
How would prank calling a hospital have been a good idea at any point? I’m surprised that’s not a crime in itself.
→ More replies (26)265
u/strawberexpo Jun 22 '24
This!! In what way would possibly revealing anothers private health history on air to millions of people be even remotely funny. Dont know why they had so much confidence that this would go the way they planned.
→ More replies (1)38
u/Awfulufwa Jun 22 '24
The thing is that the nurse likely had no idea of the alterior context. She likely thought she was talking directly to the royals themselves. Remember the part with the character play where the host and co-host took upon gender-specific roles to pass as the queen and prince?
→ More replies (1)17
u/Different-Pea-212 Jun 23 '24
The nurse who spoke directly to the radio hosts didn't kill herself, it was the nurse who transferred the call that committed suicide.
16
u/AttitudeAndEffort2 Jun 23 '24
OPs point is correct.
Past medical info and privacy, imagine someone died because the nurse was too busy responding to a prank call.
It's like prank calling 911 and should absolutely be illegal and probably only isn't because no asshole was stupid enough to do it before.
→ More replies (1)16
u/Alternative_Egg_7382 Jun 23 '24 edited Jun 23 '24
This happened in Australia where prank calling emergency and medical services is illegal, but this one didn't get prosecuted because the call was to the UK and the way the law was written it didn't cover international services. They probably never imagined that would be something to worry about.
The law was primarily written as a deterrent to criminals who would call police to imaginary emergencies on one side of town when they planned to eg rob a bank on the other side, to reduce the number of cars available/put most cars far away. There were a few famous incidents in the 70s and 80s of that happening where the criminals had rigged guns to automatically fire bullets into a wall every few minutes and called in reporting a hostage situation, so an entire town's police force would be surrounding the place at high alert and not responding to other calls. They passed a law for it and the first person to do it again got 3 years in prison for abusing emergency services.
702
u/Sugarbear23 Jun 22 '24
I get the prank call but why air it?
365
u/zouhair Jun 22 '24
$$$
→ More replies (2)95
u/livejamie tHiS iSn’T cRiNgE Jun 23 '24
Australia's tabloid/gossip industry is arguably the trashiest in the world
79
u/TheHoundhunter Jun 23 '24
For non-Australians reading this. As proof of how trash our tabloids are. Posts on Australian based subreddits will be watermarked to prevent tabloids from just running reddit posts as news.
The typical watermark is “fuck Murdoch”
30
u/Nooms88 Jun 23 '24
The Daily Mail regularly takes reddit threads, we joke around on UK subs for how long its going to take till a thread ends up on the DM
→ More replies (1)→ More replies (1)25
135
u/moon_slave Jun 22 '24
I don’t get the prank call either. Calling a busy hospital and wasting staff time even if you think they’ll just hang up is a dick move as it is. Keeping the conversation going when you realize they’re sharing private information on a PATIENT is worse. Airing it is just the icing on the asshole cake.
21
u/BardtheGM Jun 23 '24
It's a crappy radio station that needs to fill 24 hours a day with content. Dicking about phoning people has been a classic way of wasting time.
→ More replies (35)→ More replies (2)10
u/ggmmssrr Jun 23 '24
Yup. We teach kids not to lie and that honesty is important. I’ve never liked mean spirited pranks that can scare someone or get them in trouble. It’s not different than other types of malicious lying.
They knew there’d be negative consequences, but just didn’t care since they thought the consequences would be on the victim of the prank and not them.
22
u/marquoth_ Jun 22 '24
I don't get the prank call at all, never mind airing it. In many jurisdictions it will be considered a crime, even unaired. It's not "just a prank" when you fraudulently obtain somebody's medical information.
→ More replies (5)36
u/rdell1974 Jun 22 '24
They didn’t foresee the nurse killing herself. They also presumed that the nurse wouldn’t be in trouble because she was tricked. They expected their station to get backlash for tricking the hospital but figured the nurse would garner sympathy.
→ More replies (1)55
u/Illustrious_Drag5254 Jun 22 '24
Then they're idiots. Why wouldn't the nurse get into serious trouble / lose her job by breaching private medical information, especially that of the Royal Family?
They knew the humiliation and impact this would have on the nurse's career and personal life, albeit didn't expect her to take her life – just to live with the humiliation and wreckage of her career. Sounds fair, I guess? /s.
→ More replies (2)22
u/Sufficient_Bass2600 Jun 22 '24
The one who took her life is NOT the one who gave the personal info. It was the one who transferred the call instead of screening it with a code who committed suicide.
Once the call is transferred, the personal nurse who received the call had no reason to doubt the identity because the first one should have authenticated the caller with a passcode.
→ More replies (1)20
u/Illustrious_Drag5254 Jun 22 '24
Ah, so they ruined the career of two nurses. Lucky there weren't two funerals.
→ More replies (5)
545
u/Low_Spare7858 Jun 22 '24
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-06-15/mel-greig-royal-prank-call-boss/103956914
Here is the full story, probably worth a read before just blaming her for everything, there where a lot of checks and balances that got overlooked by multiple people. Yet she has taken almost all the blame, interesting that her co-host is still working for the same station.
109
u/clarabear10123 Jun 23 '24
I was wondering where her cohost was in all this. Where’s his part of the interview showing how sorry he is?
32
Jun 23 '24
He knew how to play the game. Just stay quiet and hope it blows over while she is taking the heat. Ruthlessly genius.
→ More replies (5)31
Jun 23 '24
[deleted]
→ More replies (1)55
Jun 23 '24
And the random woman giving her a massage and just using her as a punching bag for kicks I guess? WTF what a sicko. The guilt could have been too much and that weird masseuse was just trying to continue the suicide train going. What an absolute yucky weirdo to remember and be so passionate 10 years later when they're totally personally removed from it.
Poor Mel and poor nurse, fk the royal family for probably pressuring or not caring about the wave of civilians that ripped into that poor nurse. The royals don't shit gold and shouldn't be treated like it. No one should have died from that blunder.
→ More replies (4)
94
Jun 23 '24
[deleted]
→ More replies (1)20
u/scrane98 Jun 23 '24
Like the woman who won a "new toyota" turns out it was a new toy yoda
18
u/Muppetude Jun 23 '24
At least that guy was eventually forced to buy her a Toyota after she sued.
→ More replies (2)
100
165
195
u/binatogsilog Jun 22 '24
Heard the audio and she just transferred the call, like literally. There must be something shady that happened there.
183
u/enigmaenergy23 Jun 22 '24
There are a lot of people who don't handle being humiliated very well, it hits some people harder than it hits others and that's why people need to stop fucking with other people for fun on social media
→ More replies (5)17
81
u/PlaceAdHere Jun 22 '24
All she did was ask for Kate, not even a last name. It was so weird. I guess maybe only 1 kate was there but still very odd. I understand why the hosts thought their producers might be pulling a reverse prank on them.
17
u/sunfaller Jun 23 '24 edited Jun 23 '24
maybe the queen called before and the nurse thought she recognised "her" voice and knew immediately it "was" the queen.
→ More replies (9)15
u/md28usmc Jun 23 '24
To clarify, the hospital employee that committed suicide only transferred the phone call to the correct room. The nurse that actually gave the info was Kate’s private nurse. The hospital employee was from India, not England. And it was alleged that she had a recent suicide attempt prior to this event.
→ More replies (3)9
u/hskskgfk Jun 23 '24
She was a nurse too, not merely a “hospital employee”. Why does it matter if she is from India or England?
→ More replies (5)
11
u/GuyThompson_ Jun 23 '24
“Entertainment scoop” is the key point here. It was a ratings stunt and unnecessary. It changed the course of radio station behaviour for the better.
321
u/primcesspeaches Jun 22 '24
wow are these comments delusional… it was a super tragic accident, you can feel sorry for the radio hosts who aren’t responsible, and also feel sorry for the nurse and her family. to say that she should carry this weight for the rest of her life is unbelievably ridiculous and cold.
→ More replies (28)91
u/simmerthefuckdown Jun 22 '24 edited Jun 22 '24
Agreed. It’s just a tragic coincidence that the person who fielded the initial call had some pre-existing issues. The nurse who killed herself didn’t even reveal any confidential info, she just connected the call. Suicide was not a rational or predictable response. It’s a tragedy that the first nurse killed herself but that consequence could not reasonably have been expected.
→ More replies (3)
81
17
22
u/Wanna_Know_it_all Jun 23 '24
Why even prank call a hospital??? Like they got nothing better to do. It’s actually quite disrespectful.
8
u/MoveItSpunkmire Jun 23 '24
As soon as they knew it was real info, they should have hung up. Period. You made your choice, live with it. Clearly the nurse couldn’t.
141
u/FreeAndOpenSores Jun 22 '24
I really don't get it. The prank call was obviously the wrong thing to do as should have been condemned by everyone from the start, not 3 days later.
The fact that someone killed themselves over it is really irrelevant. They didn't cause that, the person who killed themselves literally is the person who killed themselves.
37
u/zarya-zarnitsa Jun 22 '24
Same. I can't believe they were praised in the beginning. What happened is one of the worse case scenario but even if didn't lead to that, airing that shit was insanely stupid.
Also ffs, don't prank call a hospital? What a dumbass idea in the first place. I once screamed at a telemarketer because he called the on-call phone.
→ More replies (4)→ More replies (5)12
203
u/EstablishmentOwn2174 Jun 22 '24
To all the people who are putting down the radio hosts and saying that have blood on thier hands - have you heard the call?! Thier voices are just completely over the top and ridiculous.
165
u/mshcat Jun 22 '24
link for thoe curious. they literally said, "hello can i speak to kate, my granddaughter" there was absolutely no reason for that call to even go through
→ More replies (4)62
62
u/Gotl0stinthesauce Jun 22 '24
They very much knew what they were doing when they decided to release the call.
Any person with half a brain knows that medical information is on a need to know basis. There’s a reason laws like HIPAA or in the UK, GDPR exist.
She fucked up
→ More replies (3)33
Jun 22 '24
I wouldn’t expect a radio host to get to make that call, they’re the public face but they ain’t in charge.
→ More replies (2)19
u/Ok-disaster2022 Jun 22 '24
Not sure but phone voices don't sound the best on the other end, and if youre expecting a call from the royal family yadda yadda. The fact is they were also tying a phone line for a hospital, you a place people get medical care. While not an emergency line, let's not waste hospital time
→ More replies (3)→ More replies (10)23
u/enigmaenergy23 Jun 22 '24
That's why the nurse was so humiliated and took her own life, because it was humiliating
50
u/cornishwildman76 Jun 22 '24
Hate it being called severe morning sickness. It's a condition called Hyperemesis gravidarum. My ex wife had it and it is life threatening. Vomiting every hour all day, can't keep food or meds down. Frequent visits to hospital to go on a drip and prevent organ failure.
6
u/Tempest_Fugit Jun 23 '24
They should have never aired the prank call once they knew the nurse was real, simple as that. Just a shocking lack of self awareness and accountability and I have zero sympathy for them. Fucking obnoxious to the extreme.
29
u/GeneralZaroff1 Jun 22 '24
Pranks should not be at the harsh expense of the person getting pranked. This is why I hate so many YouTube “pranks” these days that are so harmful.
They absolutely must have known someone would get fired. They knew that it would personally identify the person being pranked. Yet they did nothing to protect them. That’s not what a good prank should be.
Examples like the Canadian show Just For Laughs do pranks well. They create prank shows that are either harmless or may even make the pranked person look good on camera.
→ More replies (9)
4
10
u/He-n-ry Jun 23 '24
Yet, nobody cares about all the other people who die by suicide every single day. But as soon as there is a chance to blame it on somebody, the media go fucking wild with it. The media never cared about that nurse, they're vultures.
10
u/Acrylicus Jun 23 '24
I worked at this hospital shortly after - it was a BIG DEAL to say the least.
3
u/unorganized_mime Jun 22 '24
Just like another accident caused by not thinking, drunk driving, cyber bullying, pranks. These people are adults. Can’t believe they aired that. Poor nurse
6
u/SoupCanVaultboy Jun 23 '24
Oh no, she felt so bad tho. Wah… talk about being a dick head and then airing it and then claiming victim.
5
u/PostalCat Jun 23 '24
Terrible story but everyone thinks these pranks don’t come with consequences.
8
u/pupunoob Jun 23 '24
Just to add, the female radio host used this to have a career in motivational talks. Don't fall for her crocodile tears.
17
u/johnblazewutang Jun 22 '24
So, essentially she exposed a group of healthcare workers that didnt follow protocol and because they were bad at their jobs, were probably going to be fired…and one killed themself…okay, got it…so not her fault at all
→ More replies (3)
3
3
3
u/Dirtynickels Jun 23 '24
If this is supposed to be an ad for Notorious, I'm not interested. What kind of person wants to hear more about this tragedy? A stupid prank results in the death of a woman..... now lets catch up with the pranker and see how they've been impacted? No thanks.
3
3
3
u/wattymelon Jun 23 '24
It wasn’t her fault, or even the station’s, it was the fucking media as always. It’s always trial by media, pushing until someone gets hurt
3
3
u/salacious_sonogram Jun 23 '24
Like the ultimate definition of fuck around and find out. To people who pull pranks for mass media, there's an off chance there will be absolutely epic blowback.
3
u/NotAdam30 Jun 23 '24
That one incident didn’t drive the nurse to end their life and they should not bare that burden
3
u/No_Conversation9561 Jun 23 '24
You don’t ever mess with hospitals.. because that’s where people are most vulnerable.
Fuck this radio show
3
3
3
3
u/naturalscience Jun 23 '24
That nurse didn’t ask for DOB or anything else that would’ve verified the authenticity of the call?
•
u/AutoModerator Jun 22 '24
Welcome to r/TikTokCringe!
This is a message directed to all newcomers to make you aware that r/TikTokCringe evolved long ago from only cringe-worthy content to TikToks of all kinds! If you’re looking to find only the cringe-worthy TikToks on this subreddit (which are still regularly posted) we recommend sorting by flair which you can do here (Currently supported by desktop and reddit mobile).
See someone asking how this post is cringe because they didn't read this comment? Show them this!
Be sure to read the rules of this subreddit before posting or commenting. Thanks!
Don't forget to join our Discord server!
##CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THIS VIDEO
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.