The Dra. Lorna Breen worked in the emergency response to patients COVID-19 and, in fact, she overcame the disease caused by the new coronavirus.
But sadly, the specialist battling the pandemic from the Presbyterian Hospital facility in Inwood, Manhattan, took her own life, her own father confirmed to NBC News .
Breen contracted the disease while caring for his patients. When she recovered, she returned to the front line as director of the emergency room, although according to the New York Times , the hospital sent her back to her home.
Lorna, who also worked at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, committed suicide last Sunday in Charlottesville, Virginia, at the age of 49. "She was in the trenches," said her father, Philip Breen . "She was a heroine."
Photo: Columbia University Irving Medical Center
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The story of the father who is mourning today is heartbreaking. "She went down into the trenches and was killed by the enemy on the front line," the man told CNN .
And though her grief is immeasurable, Breen continues to acknowledge that her daughter struggled with everything she had to help the place she considered home.
"She loved New York and didn't even want to hear about living anywhere else. She loved her coworkers and did what she could for them," said Philip.
"I just want people to know how special she was," he added in his statements to CNN . "She was in every way a heroine who gave her life for her friends and her city," she told NBC News .
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Philip Breen is a retired trauma surgeon, and so, during this coronavirus crisis, he was able to talk to his daughter about many details that she saw in health centers.
Lorna told her father that her colleagues were working 18 hours a day and sleeping in the hallways, and that the ambulances could not enter because they were all very busy.
According to the man told CNN , his daughter contracted COVID-19 and it took a week to recover, but not completely. His wish was to work and help his colleagues, but in his condition he failed to complete a 12-hour shift.
So a friend of the woman, also a doctor, visited her and said that she should go to Virginia, where most of her family was. With the help of other friends and family, she made it to Chalottesville.
According to NBC , on Sunday April 26, local police received a call from the Lorna family residence, and it was confirmed that the doctor's death occurred from "self-inflicted injuries".
"Words cannot convey the sense of loss we have today," read a statement released by the New York hospitals where Lorna worked.
"Dr. Breen is a heroine who brought the highest ideals of medicine to the challenging front lines of the emergency room. Our focus today is to support her family, friends and colleagues as they overcome this news during what It is already an extraordinarily difficult time, "he added in the message from the health institutions, recovered by various media.
If you or someone you know is considering committing suicide, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255), text the word "home" to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 or visit suicidepreventionlifeline.org. Lifeline offers free service in Spanish 24/7.
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