Princess Adeline of Wales

Chapter Seventy-Seven: Hospital Prank Gone Wrong

7th of December 2012 - FitzClarence House

Staring at the news as the current headline covered the screen, Adeline couldn't help but feel her heart go out to the poor woman's family. 

She couldn't imagine what they were going though right now, she couldn't believe what had happened and she cursed the radio DJs that had caused this terrible accident. 

On the 4th of December, the hosts of the Hot30 Countdown radio programme, Mel Greig and Mike Christian, called the hospital and spoke to the main nurse, Saldanha; they had been impersonating the Queen and the Prince of Wales to gain details about Catherine who was still in hospital. 

The stunt was broadcast on the 5th of December, after it had been cleared by the radio station's lawyers. 

When hospital chief executive John Lofthouse learned of the prank call, he condemned it as an act of "journalistic trickery" that no nurse should have to deal with while they were at work. 

The CEO of Southern Cross Austereo, Rhys Holleran, had claimed that station officials had made at least five attempts to contact the two nurses in the recording prior to greenlighting the call for broadcast with Sydney University law professor, Barbara McDonald noting that his comments showed the station already understood they needed to "[get] consent (to air the interview) and they failed to". 

Yesterday the radio station issued a brief apology for "any inconvenience caused" by their actions, although Christian continued to promote "the royal prank" on Twitter. Neither Saldanha nor the other nurse was disciplined or suspended by the hospital; St. James's Palace also indicated that they did not blame the nurses for their part in the incident. 

It had been that morning that Saldanha was found dead by security and other staff in her nurse's quarters at the hospital. She had died by suicide, and also had injuries.

It was being reported that Saldanha had left three handwritten notes, one of which blamed the radio stunt for her death. 

Another note discussed her wishes for funeral arrangements, while the third was directed at her employer, criticising their handling of events that followed the prank call. 

The entire affair was a sad one, Catherine having gotten out of hospital yesterday and had called her upset when she had seen the news that had happened to the nurse. 

Adeline couldn't imagine what the poor nurse had been going through, she had behind two children and her husband when she had taken her life over what had happened.

Simon was seated beside her, a frown upon his face unable to believe that anyone would think that what they had done was acceptable especially when it came to broadcasting the interview that they had gotten. 

Surely someone had to have spoken up and said that releasing the audio was a bad idea, that they would be sued for even considering letting it out. 

Now a woman had paid with her life, her family torn apart and nothing could be done to fix that. 

"Is there anything that we can do?" Simon asked feeling helpless in all of this, there was no escaping this news especially with it being plastered everywhere. 

It made him fear having his own children, he didn't want to put Adeline in that situation and he knew that there was only so much that he would be able to protect his family. 

"William said he already planned to reach out, offer to help them in anyway that he can," Adeline said shaking her head, she wished that there was more that could be done for the family of this woman. 

There was disgust all around about what had happened, the breach in privacy that Catherine had suffered and the mockery that the DJs had made of the poor nurses involved.