By Wesley Johnson
Jacintha Saldanha, 46, was treated in intensive care at a hospital in Mangalore, India, in January, after reportedly falling from a building. It came just nine days after she attempted to commit suicide with an overdose of pills during a family visit to India, according to reports.
The details emerged as Scotland Yard submitted a file and asked prosecutors to consider whether any potential offences were committed by two Australian DJs who called the nurse who then transferred their call to a colleague who described Kate’s condition.
Indian-born Mrs Saldanha’s brother Naveen said she never talked about previous suicide attempts or discussed her life and health issues with him during her visits to Mangalore. But he added he visited the mother-of-two when she was admitted to the intensive care unit of the Father Muller Medical College Hospital on January 8 following the fall.
He told The Times of India: “Jacintha never wanted the family to know of the incident and we played a behind-the-scene role. “Even this incident was not discussed at home for the knowledge of it would have hurt my ailing mother Carmine.”
He went on: “We told her (Carmine) that Jacintha was admitted to hospital for blood pressure problems.” More than 2,000 mourners joined her family as they paid an emotional farewell to her last week at her funeral in southern India.
Her husband Benedict Barboza and son, Junal 16, carried Mrs Saldanha’s coffin, which was covered with flowers and with a photographic portrait on top, down the aisle of the Church of Our Lady of Health in Shirva.
Her daughter Lisha, 14, who followed a few steps behind, said her mother’s death left an “unfillable void in our lives”. Ronald Saldanha, a relative of the family, added in the church address: “Benedict has become a widower and her children are motherless. Let us pray for her soul.”
An inquest earlier this month heard Mrs Saldanha had been found hanged in staff accommodation on December 7 and there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding her death. A few days earlier she had put the hoax call through to a colleague, who relayed confidential details about the health of the Duchess.