Fan calls flood UMC’s switchboard

Tuesday, Sept. 10, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

The switchboard at University Medical Center, where 25-year-old rapper Tupak Shakur was taken after a gunman shot him over the weekend, has received thousands of calls from a concerned public.

"Yesterday we got about 1,400 calls in this office," said UMC public relations spokeswoman Nancy Holland. "I don't know how many the main operator got. They got a lot, too."

Spokesman Dale Pugh said the hospital has treated celebrities before, but they haven't generated this much attention. While a lot of queries have been from the media, the majority of calls have been from the public, he said.

After the phones started lighting up Sunday morning, a special recording was set up and updated every hour with Shakur's condition, Pugh said. The recording asks callers not to send flowers because Shakur can't receive them in the trauma center. Cards are suggested instead.

"They took over a thousand phone calls here on Sunday," Pugh said. "The burden is just too great."