Mangalore: Jacintha’s death in London has come as a great shock to her family and friends

Mangalore Today Network / I J S

Mangalore, Dec 8, 2012: The news of Mangalorean nurse Jacintha Saldahna’s death who took prank call about Prince William’s wife Kate has come as a great shock to her family members and friends here in Mangalore.

Jacintha’s Family in Sorkala near Shirva is in grief as they have lost their family member. The family members still have no information as to what exactly happened to Jacintha, the only information so far they got is through the media. Carmine Barboza, Mother in Law of Jacintha speaking to mangaloretoday.com said that she does not know what exactly has happened in London. Her son Benedict has so far not contacted her.

Irene Barboza, sister of Benedict Barboza said to the reporters that she had received a call from her brother on Friday 8.00 pm. Jacintha was married for 20 years and they are blessed with two children, Junal (16) and Lisha(17) who are studying in London.

 

 

 

 

Reactions to the sad death of Jacintha Saldanha who was found dead in London has been strong and severe here in Mangalore. Many of the staff of Fr.Muller’s Medical college who recalled her as a very dedicated personality while at the institution were shocked to hear of the developments.

 

Talking to Mangaloretoday.com, Rev. Sr. Aileen Mathias, Chief Nursing Officer, Fr.Muller’s hospital said that Jacinth was her contemporary in the GNM Course at Fr Muller’s School of Nursing between 1984-87. “Jecintha was a very efficient, intelligent and lively personality who had won laurels in her nursing studies” recalled Sr. Aileen. "During her last visit to India in December 2011, she had met me and given some money to help poor students” she said.

 

After leaving the Nursing School in Mangalore she said to have done advanced studies in Nursing and went to Muscat and then on to the UK. In London she did well in furthering her nursing career and rose to a high level at the King Edward VII Hospital London. It has come to light that Ms Jacintha Saldanha (her maiden name, which she continued to use as are the norms for compatibility with her education documents)  was married to Mr Benedict Barboza who hails from Shirva, but are resident in Mangalore for some years now. 

 

Benedict and Junal Barboza

 

Jacintha with Junal and Lisha

Jacintha was born in Mangalore. She has a brother, Naveen Saldanha who lives with his family in Valencia, Mangalore.  Her husband, Benedict Barboza is a native of Shirva, in Udupi District, in Karnataka State. She was the fourth of Lawrence and Carmine Saldanha’s six children. 

 

Efforts to talk with Ms.Jacintha’s brother Mr.Naveen Saldanha,who resides behind Gerosa School in Valencia made it evident that he was in no mood to talk on the matter as he was overwhelmed by the extraordinary grief and shock that the incident had caused to him and the family. The family is currently in a highly disturbed state of mind and was not interested in talking to media.

There was a great deal of communication with all connections locally in Mangalore and Shirva which are the main pockets that are familiar with Ms.Jacintha Saldanha, the tragic victim of the prank call. The long term repercussions of this are yet to be gauged and news channels / media are standing by for further developments.

The official statement from the British authorities is awaited and meanwhile plausible conjecture only is ruling.