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Kate Middleton pregnancy: Radio station prank calls hospital, gets nurse to divulge details

The hospital where a pregnant Kate Middleton is recuperating from an acute bout of severe morning sickness was fooled by an Australian radio show into divulging medical information.
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Oh, jolly good joke, boys!
Oh, jolly good joke, boys! 
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Published: Dec. 5, 2012 at 4:00 PM
By GABRIELLE LEVY, UPI.com

The news of Kate Middleton's royal pregnancy broke Monday after the Duchess of Cambridge was admitted to a central London hospital with an acute bout of Hyperemesis Gravidarum, or severe morning sickness.

While speculation immediately ran rampant--baby names, the possibility of twins--the excitement was palpable.

Two radio hosts from a station in Sydney got in on the fun, thinking they might try to get through to Kate's hospital room by posing as Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles.

Update: Pranked nurse appears to commit suicide, DJs off air

It's doubtful that Mel Grieg and Michael Christian (and their terrible impressions of the Queen and her son) thought they'd actually get through, and they didn't--but they fooled the poor nurse on the end of the line enough to get to to divulge medical details about the Duchess's condition.

After the prank was revealed, a spokesman for King Edward VII Hospital, where the Duchess is staying, told the Telegraph the hospital "deeply regrets" the incident.

"This call was transferred through to a ward and a short conversation was held with one of the nursing staff. King Edward VII's Hospital deeply regrets this incident," the spokesman said.

John Lofthouse, the hospital chief, added: "This was a foolish prank call that we all deplore. We take patient confidentiality extremely seriously and we are now reviewing our telephone protocols."

© 2012 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI's prior written consent.

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