The joy of the royal baby news was quickly overshadowed by the tragic death of Jacintha Saldanha. Saldanha was the nurse who answered the prank phone call while Kate Middleton was being treated for severe morning sickness at London’s King Edward VII Hospital.
Saldanha believed the two Australian DJ’s who impersonated Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles and transferred the call to another nurse, who exposed secretive information about Middleton’s condition, NPR reported.
Just three days after the prank phone call by the DJs Mel Greig and Michael Christian, Saldanha was found hanging by a scarf from a wardrobe in her nurses’ quarters. It was Dec. 7 — she was found by a coworker and an associate of security staff at London’s King Edward VII Hospital, reported CBS news.
According to CBS News, before committing suicide, the mother-of-two left three notes. In one of the notes she criticized the hospital staff, and in the second she confessed how painful it was for her to deal with the prank call. In the third and final letter she left funeral instructions for her family.
It seems bizarre that a person would take their own life over something so silly and innocent. The DJs spoke out publically about their actions and they did not mean for anything so tragic to happen and according to the Huffington Post they “expected a hang-up and a few laughs.”
Even though they gave an emotional interview and apologized publically for their actions, people are still after these DJs and it has turned into a witch-hunt.
Twitter has been blowing up with comments that condemn these people. While other Twitter members that have commented on this matter are intelligent enough to know that this was an unfortunate series of events because the nurse must have been unstable and had other problems in her life that led to her awful decision.
“I’m sure there are other factors that led to her suicide. However horrible that prank might have been, I’m sure she had mental health issues prior to the incident and this might have just set it off” said Brittany Lewis, DePaul graduate.
The situation has gotten even more out of control in the past few days because according to The Telegraph, Greig and Christian have been moved to safe houses and given 24-hour protection because they have received death threats. The station, 2DayFM, has also moved some of their staff to hotels and been given personal protection.
Since the prank, the radio staff has received numerous death threats and they plan on having security for weeks and even months to come. It will cost them ?