Nurse death: Australian DJs “gutted, shattered, heartbroken”

Monday, December 10, 2012
9:17 AM

The Australian DJs behind a prank call to the hospital where the pregnant Duchess of Cambridge was being treated have spoken of their regret after one of the nurses they spoke to was later found dead in a suspected suicide.

In emotional interviews on Australian TV networks, presenters Mel Greig and Michael Christian insisted that their prank call to the King Edward VII’s Hospital in central London had “never meant” to get that far and they had expected staff to hang up on them.

The pair posed as the Queen and the Prince of Wales when they rang the hospital where Kate was being treated for acute morning sickness.

Nurse Jacintha Saldanha took the initial call and, believing the call to be genuine, put them through to another colleague who was duped into describing Kate’s condition in detail.

A tearful Greig, who was at times comforted by Christian, told Today Tonight on Australia’s Channel Seven: “There’s nothing that can make me feel worse than what I feel right now.

“And for what I feel for the family.

“We’re so sorry that this has happened to them.”

Christian said he was “gutted, shattered, heartbroken” by the nurse’s death.

Mother of two Ms Saldanha, 46, was found dead on Friday in what appeared to be a suspected suicide.