Lorna Margaret Breen (October 9, 1970 – April 26, 2020)[1] was an American physician who was the emergency room director at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. She died by suicide in 2020, while taking a break with family in Charlottesville, Virginia during the coronavirus pandemic.

Lorna Breen
Born
Lorna Margaret Breen

(1970-10-09)October 9, 1970
Charlottesville, Virginia, United States
DiedApril 26, 2020(2020-04-26) (aged 49)
Charlottesville, Virginia
OccupationPhysician

Early life

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NewYork-Presbyterian Allen hospital where Lorna Breen worked

Breen was born in Charlottesville, Virginia, and raised in Danville, Pennsylvania.[2] She graduated from Wyoming Seminary in 1988.[3] She received a master's degree at Cornell University and attended Medical College of Virginia before doing a residency at Long Island Jewish Medical Center.[4][5]

Career

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Breen worked in The Allen Hospital at the NewYork-Presbyterian, where during spring of 2020 she treated patients with COVID-19. She contracted the virus herself then went back to work after isolating for a week and a half. On a family break in Charlottesville, Virginia, she died by suicide on April 26, 2020.[6][7] Her father said: "She was truly in the trenches of the frontline. She tried to do her job, and it killed her [...] Make sure she’s praised as a hero. Because she was, she’s a casualty just as much as anyone else who has died."[8]

Selected works

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  • Breen, Lorna M. (1 September 1999). "What Should I Do If My Patient Does Not Speak English?". JAMA. 282 (9): 819. doi:10.1001/jama.282.9.819-JMS0901-3-1. PMID 10478684.
  • Chang, Bernard P.; Cato, Kenrick Dwain; Cassai, Mary; Breen, Lorna (November 2019). "Clinician burnout and its association with team based care in the Emergency Department". The American Journal of Emergency Medicine. 37 (11): 2113–2114. doi:10.1016/j.ajem.2019.06.032. PMC 6917942. PMID 31255426.
  • Brener, Michael I.; Tung, Jen; Stant, Jennifer; Sayan, Osman R.; Suh, Edward H.; Minutello, Robert M.; Sharma, Rahul; Brener, Sorin J.; Melniker, Lawrence A.; Moustakakis, Emmanuel N.; Neuberg, Gerald; Breen, Lorna M.; Nutovits, Ronald; Kats, Yuliya; Amaranto, Andrew; Pucillo, Anthony; Kirtane, Ajay J.; Rabbani, LeRoy E. (December 2019). "An Updated Healthcare System-Wide Clinical Pathway for Managing Patients With Chest Pain and Acute Coronary Syndromes". Critical Pathways in Cardiology. 18 (4): 167–175. doi:10.1097/HPC.0000000000000189. PMID 31725507. S2CID 208036312.

References

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  1. ^ "A Doctor's Emergency". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on 17 April 2021. Retrieved 11 April 2021.
  2. ^ "Dr. Lorna M. Breen was born and raised in Danville". The Express. Archived from the original on 2020-05-06. Retrieved 2020-05-01.
  3. ^ Hallikaar, Viktoria (2020-04-29). "Wyoming Seminary alumni react to suicide of NYC doctor, former classmate". WOLF. Archived from the original on 2022-08-26. Retrieved 2020-05-01.
  4. ^ Corina Knoll; Ali Watkins; Michael Rothfeld (July 11, 2020). "'I Couldn't Do Anything': The Virus and an E.R. Doctor's Suicide". The New York Times. Archived from the original on August 9, 2022. Retrieved August 26, 2022.
  5. ^ "Doctor directory – Lorna M. Breen M.D." Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Archived from the original on April 28, 2020.
  6. ^ Watkins, Ali; Rothfeld, Michael; Rashbaum, William K.; Rosenthal, Brian M. (2020-04-27). "Top E.R. Doctor Who Treated Virus Patients Dies by Suicide". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2020-05-09. Retrieved 2020-05-01.
  7. ^ Iati, Marisa; Bellware, Kim (2020-04-29). "NYC emergency doctor dies by suicide, underscoring a secondary danger of the pandemic". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 2020-05-01. Retrieved 2020-05-01.
  8. ^ Evelyn, Kenya (April 28, 2020). "New York ER doctor who treated coronavirus patients dies by suicide". The Guardian. Archived from the original on May 5, 2020. Retrieved May 7, 2020.
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