Emergency Room Doctor Who Treated Coronavirus Patients Takes Her Own Life

An emergency room doctor, who reportedly had no mental health issues, killed herself over the weekend. Police say Dr. Lorna Breen, the medical director of the emergency department at NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital, died from self-inflicted injuries. The New York Times writes:

Dr. Breen’s father, Dr. Philip C. Breen, said she had described devastating scenes of the toll the coronavirus took on patients.

“She tried to do her job, and it killed her,” he said.

The elder Dr. Breen said his daughter had contracted the coronavirus but had gone back to work after recuperating for about a week and a half. The hospital sent her home again, before her family intervened to bring her to Charlottesville, he said.

NBC News adds:

(Breen) said his daughter seemed very detached of late and that she had described some of the horrors she had witnessed at the hospital while battling the virus.

“Make sure she’s praised as a hero, because she was,” Phillip Breen said. “She’s a casualty just as much as anybody else who has died.”

Watch more from NBC News above.

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