The family of the tragic nurse in the royal hospital hoax believe she died of shame.
Jacintha Saldanha’s brother Naveen told the Daily Mail that his devoutly Catholic sister was a ‘proper and righteous person’.
She would have been ‘devastated’ at unwittingly assisting a colleague in breaching medical confidentiality over the condition of the Duchess of Cambridge.
She would have felt much shame about the incident,’ he said.
Mother-of-two Mrs Saldanha, 46, was found dead on Friday morning – 48 hours after the broadcast of an early-morning prank call in which two Australian DJs posed as the Queen and Prince of Wales.
Mrs Saldanha put the call through to Kate’s ward at the King Edward VII Hospital in central London, where an unnamed colleague gave details of the duchess’s treatment for severe morning sickness.
A recording of the conversation was broadcast on the 2Day FM station with the DJs gleefully boasting about their successful hoax.
Yesterday they were in hiding as the worldwide backlash against their action grew.
Mrs Saldanha, whose husband Benedict Barboza is an NHS accountant, moved to the UK ten years ago from Mangalore in south-west India.
In Mangalore yesterday, her sister-in-law Celine Barboza said the family could not understand what had caused the ‘strong’ mother of two apparently to end her life.
We just cannot believe what has happened,’ she said.
‘She was a very strong person and couldn’t have taken this drastic step easily. We would like to get an answer.’
Another sister-in-law, Irene Barboza, said: ‘She used to call us very regularly and was like our fourth sister.
‘But she told no one in the family about the prank call that has been blamed for driving her to suicide.’
The nurse’s 49-year-old husband said he was ‘devastated’ by her death while her 14-year-daughter Lisha posted on Facebook ‘I miss you. I love you.’
They and her 16-year-old son Junal were said to be ‘shocked and inconsolable’. The family live in Southmead, Bristol, and Mrs Saldanha stayed in nurses’ quarters in London during her shifts at the hospital.
Her mother-in-law, 85-year-old Carmine Barboza, wept as she told of the moment she heard of Mrs Saldanha’s death from her son.
‘He was crying and couldn’t speak much,’ she said.
‘I want to know about the circumstances of her death and nobody is giving me an answer. She used to stay at the nurses’ quarters and go home to be with her children on her days off, so now I don’t know who will look after my grandchildren.’
She added that the family were desperate to bring Mrs Saldanha’s body back to India to perform the last rites in the Catholic tradition.
‘Nobody is telling me any information about her and whether her body is being brought to India.’
A neighbour said: ‘What these Australian guys did is not acceptable. Their prank has killed our beloved Jacintha. Her death should be blamed on them.’
Interview with the Australian DJ’s in the aftermath right here from Current Affair Channel 9
(source–Richard Shears, Emily Andrews,Sam Greenhill dailymail.co.uk)
