ER Doctor Lorna Breen Dies Of Suicide After Weeks Of Treating COVID-19 Patients
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – A top New York City doctor took her own life after weeks of treating patients with COVID-19.
Dr. Lorna Breen, 49, was medical director of the emergency department at New York Presbyterian's Allen hospital in Upper Manhattan.
She died Sunday while visiting family in Charlottesville, Virginia.
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According to The New York Times, Dr. Breen had been infected with the coronavirus but had recovered.
She told her father she had been dealing with an onslaught of patients, some dying before they could get out of the ambulance.
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Her father said, "she tried to do her job, and it killed her."
The hospital system issued a statement praising Dr. Breen as "a hero."
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"Words cannot convey the sense of loss we feel today. Dr. Breen is a hero who brought the highest ideals of medicine to the challenging front lines of the emergency department," the statement read. "Our focus today is to provide support to her family, friends, and colleagues as they cope with this news during what is already an extraordinarily difficult time."