Dr. Lorna Breen was more than just a physician; she was a sister, a daughter, a cherished friend, and a dedicated healer. Her life’s ambition was to serve as an emergency room doctor in the heart of New York City, a goal she pursued relentlessly from her earliest years. For Doctor Breen, medicine was not merely a profession, but a profound calling, a way to make a tangible difference in people’s lives. She poured her heart into enhancing patient care and was always seeking innovative approaches to improve their experiences within the healthcare system.
Beyond the demanding walls of the hospital, Doctor Breen embraced life to the fullest. She was an avid traveler, exploring the globe and immersing herself in diverse cultures. In New York, she cultivated a close-knit circle of friends and found spiritual solace and community within her church. Her adventurous spirit shone through her love for snowboarding and salsa dancing, and she relished her role as the beloved “cool aunt” to her eight nieces and nephews. In a testament to her joyful spirit, Doctor Breen proudly drove a convertible sports car, simply because it brought her happiness, defying any practical objections.
Tragically, Doctor Breen died by suicide on April 26, 2020, a devastating loss that resonated deeply within the medical community and beyond. In the preceding three weeks, she had been on the front lines of the burgeoning COVID-19 pandemic, treating countless patients, contracting the virus herself, and then returning to a hospital overwhelmed with an unrelenting influx of critically ill individuals. Doctor Breen and her colleagues faced unimaginable pressures, working tirelessly through the peak of the crisis in New York City. They battled with limited personal protective equipment (PPE), insufficient medical supplies, shortages of oxygen and beds, and a desperate lack of adequate support staff. Patients were struggling for their lives in waiting rooms and hallways, a stark reality of the overwhelmed system. Even after grueling twelve-hour shifts, Doctor Breen, like many of her dedicated coworkers, would stay longer, driven by the continuous and overwhelming need. Her journey home from the Emergency Department was fraught with anxiety. The typically bustling subway trains of New York were eerily empty due to social distancing, leaving her with a palpable fear of mugging. Trying to avoid public transport, she attempted to take taxis, but some drivers refused to pick her up, fearing exposure to the virus from someone leaving a hospital. Despite these immense challenges and anxieties, Doctor Breen persevered, returning day after day until she reached a point of utter exhaustion and despair.
The breaking point came on April 9, 2020, when Doctor Breen called Jennifer from her Manhattan home, confiding that she was unable to even get out of her chair. She was in a near-catatonic state, the culmination of over a week of sleepless nights and relentless work. She had been consistently working 12-hour shifts and extending those hours to meet the overwhelming demands. In one particularly harrowing shift, she was responsible for covering two emergency rooms in Manhattan simultaneously, facilities separated by five miles. Doctor Breen answered the desperate call of her city and her country during an unprecedented crisis. Yet, in her deepest despair, immobilized by overwork and despondency, her primary concern was her career. She was consumed by the fear of losing her medical license or being ostracized by her peers for seeking help for the mental health struggles stemming directly from her heroic work on the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis. Doctor Breen was terrified that seeking mental health support would jeopardize the career she had dedicated her entire life to building. Initially, her loved ones believed these fears were unfounded. However, after her tragic passing, they discovered the grim reality: licensing boards across the United States often require physicians to disclose current or past mental health care, sometimes even at any level of intervention. Hospitals also mandate such disclosures for credentialing, and within the medical profession, seeking mental health care is often, and tragically, stigmatized as a sign of weakness.
It is crucial to understand that Doctor Breen had no prior history of mental health issues, no known or suspected depression or anxiety. She was known for her intelligence, her sharp wit, and her perfectly measured sarcasm. Her death unveiled a shocking and devastating statistic: approximately 400 physicians in the United States die by suicide each year. Furthermore, female physicians are at a higher risk of suicide compared to their male counterparts. And tragically, emergency medicine, the very field Doctor Breen dedicated her life to, has one of the highest suicide rates among all medical specialties.
In the aftermath of her death, a stark and painful truth emerged: one of Doctor Breen‘s most significant risk factors was simply being a physician. Her story serves as a powerful and heartbreaking reminder of the immense pressures faced by healthcare professionals and the urgent need to address the mental health crisis within the medical community.
