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RIP Dr. Lorna Breen
see also: ACEP // ACEP Mourns Loss of NY Physician, Dr. Lorna Breen
(ACEP is the American College of Emergency Physicians)
After treating COVID-19 patients and contracting the virus herself, longtime ACEP member Lorna Breen, MD, FACEP, died by suicide Sunday, according to published reports.
Dr. Breen, 49, was the chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the New York Presbyterian Allen Hospital. She had been an ACEP member for 15 years and served recently on the Emergency Medicine Practice Committee, where she spearheaded the development of a soon-to-be-available Point of Care tool for patients with Autism Spectrum Disorder.
The outbreaks in the worst areas are the stuff of PTSD for those working in hospital ICUs and emergency departments. The effort to prevent this kind of nightmare outbreak from happening elsewhere or for longer in the places it has happened is why we’re making the sometimes heartbreaking economic and personal sacrifices we are making–and I would hope no one is dismissing those as trivial, either.
The doctor who took her own life had initially missed work because she contracted COVID-19 and was later sent home by her hospital because she had still not recovered enough to finish a 12 hour shift.
Her father (also a physician) was quoted as saying: “Just before she went back, she said that the ambulance had been waiting outside the building for over three hours with sick people. They couldn’t even get the people out of the ambulances in there."
This outlines the issues from the standpoint of the nurses:
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We have no place to change our clothes and bag them, so I had to put my coat on over my uniform. Most staff who live in houses say they disrobe outside their homes and bag their clothes—then shower and change. They try to disinfect their cars. I live in an apartment so can’t do that.
I heard comments like: “Well, most of us are going to get it and some of us are going to die. That’s the way it is.”
These statements broke my heart. The way our patients are suffering broke my heart. There’s got to be a better way.
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