The tragic events that followed an ill-advised prank call regarding the pregnant and ill Kate Middleton have been followed by an emotional tribute to the late Jacintha Saldanha, who was found dead on Friday 7th after a suspected suicide.

Her family described Mrs Saldanha as a "loving mother and a loving wife," via Keith Vaz MP, report Sky News. "This is a close family, they are devastated by what has happened, they miss her every moment of every day," he said. "They are really grateful for the support of the British public and the public overseas for the messages of support and kindness," he added.

Prime Minister David Cameron spoke of his "shock" at Mrs Saldanha's death. He said: "I thought it was completely shocking ... I heard about the suicide of this nurse, who worked incredibly hard and obviously was incredibly dedicated. I feel incredibly sorry for her and her family. It is an absolute tragedy that this has happened and I am sure everyone will want to reflect on how it was allowed to happen."

Understandably, the Sydney radio station, 2Day FM have come under intense scrutiny. "Following the hoax call, the radio station did not speak to anyone in the hospital's senior management or anyone at the company who handles our media enquiries," a hospital spokesman said.

"It is absolutely true to say that we actually did attempt to contact those people on multiple occasions," he told Fairfax Radio, an Australian broadcaster.

"We rang them up to discuss what we had recorded ... we attempted to contact them on no less than five occasions ... we wanted to speak to them about it."