NYC Covid ER Dr Commits Suicide

G

groveChuck

U-matic Member
This is just beyond tragic- a different sort of victim of the disease.
It's from April 27 (but is news to me, popped up after a story I read), but it can only be getting worse on the front lines:

A prominent Manhattan emergency room doctor who had treated a staggering number of coronavirus patients killed herself in Virginia, authorities said Monday.

Breen’s father said the crush of coronavirus cases his daughter handled was overwhelming, and that she herself became ill with COVID-19, though she went back to work after a week and a half. She had no history of depression, he said.

"She was a very outgoing, very energetic person who, I don’t know what snapped, but something blew up in her, and so she ended up taking her own life,” he said. “She just ran out of emotional gas.”

"She stayed home about a week and a half, but I think she felt guilty about not being at work,” her father said. “The last time I talked to her was before she went in for her 12-hour shift that she couldn’t finish.”

...“Just before she went back, she said that the ambulance had been waiting outside the building for over three hours with sick people. They couldn’t even get the people out of the ambulances in there,” he added...

The doctor’s death comes in the wake of the suicide of another front-line worker — EMT John Mondello, 23, who took his own life with a gun that belonged to his retired NYPD cop father.


https://www.nydailynews.com/coronav...0200427-mkqjksodjzdt7lkonk32pvv47i-story.html
 
Medical staff and essential workers are bearing the brunt of this disaster. And medical staff are just being worked harder and harder to handle whatever caseload there is. It's pretty inhumane. My wife has had several prenatal appointments at our hospital recently and she says everyone there is universally tense. Even if they're not treating covid patients, there's a lot of extra disinfecting work they have to do. Plus, they have the same childcare problems everyone has.
 
DLD said:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/russia...lained-official-covid-19-response-2020-05-05/
Click to expand...
That's insane! "Fall" from windows?

As for patients, there's been a new discovery of young (late 20s) Covid patients in US having strokes.

Abe- when's your delivery date? And best wishes!

My wife had knee surgery Tues, on Day 2 of "elective" surgery, and yes, the hospital was pretty intense...

I got away for 4 days last week camping in my as yet unfinished camper van and mt biking in N Fla.
No signal, off grid, complete escape. Then hit Walmart and maybe 1 out of 50 wearing masks- Sad!
 
groveChuck said:
That's insane! "Fall" from windows?

As for patients, there's been a new discovery of young (late 20s) Covid patients in US having strokes.

Abe- when's your delivery date? And best wishes!

My wife had knee surgery Tues, on Day 2 of "elective" surgery, and yes, the hospital was pretty intense...

I got away for 4 days last week camping in my as yet unfinished camper van and mt biking in N Fla.
No signal, off grid, complete escape. Then hit Walmart and maybe 1 out of 50 wearing masks- Sad!
Click to expand...

Yikes re:strokes. There's also been reports of rare but severe inflammatory illnesses among kids aged 5-18.

Our due date was May 14, so now we're officially 1 day late. It could happen any time.

Are they not required to wear masks in Walmart in Florida? Every place I go here has a sign at the doors saying face covering is required.

As for going off the grid - I remember reading a story in March about a group that went canoeing or something in the grand canyon or someplace for 2 weeks before stuff hit the fan. They came back to civilization and were like "Why is there a toilet paper shortage?" This would have been a good year for living in the woods.
 
This happened locally (she was visiting family). The police and news covered it with stories and press conferences.

No coverage for an old acquaintance that ended his life after a descent into jobless depression, though.

Panic, depression, and despair are not really unique to this time. Few people are doing much of anything to address that particular epidemic.
 
This is so sad. I wish more people could understand the toll this is taking, even when it seems and feels invisible to them.
 
While tragic, as all suicides are, here are the numbers. On average, there is one doctor suicide per day (twice the norm). For women, suicides are most prevalent in the 45-64 age (she was 46). Suicides peak in the spring and are at their lowest during the December holiday season (contrary to what one might guess).

To date then, we would expect that there has already been 136 doctor suicides.
 
My wife is a therapist for the staff at a large Manhattan hospital. Whatever you think it is like the reality is far worse. While we are over the hump (at least for the moment) the psychological trama wil leave damage for years to come.
 
Abe- grocery stores require masks, Walmart does not. Good luck to you and your wife!!!
The woods (a State Forest and adjacent National Forest) were so peaceful, quiet and healthy, tempting me to relocate. My wife may have disagreed...

mcbob- so sorry about your friend. A depression pandemic?

filmguy- couldn't agree more.

Paul- I'd never heard those stats- I wonder what studies say?

Mitch- kudos to your wife! And I hope she doesn't get overloaded...


This thing is like a Cat 5 physical/emotional/financial hurricane that has parked, and is just churning and churning- damaging and taking lives, livelihoods and minds.
It's looking more and more like it will have the Great Depression-esque impact many of us were thinking of in the early days (other than destroying the banks).

Man, I just want to head back to the woods... but anyone who reads this- if you feel desperate, please seek help.
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is open 24/7 at 1-800-273-8255.

And do what makes you happy and brings you joy, other than shooting old-school gigs. Shoot for fun if it works for you.
 
The statistics I provided are from the CDC. Oddly, men's suicides peak after 70 years old. Who would have guessed?

What we aren't hearing about is a cost-benefit analysis. We're all in this together to save lives. But what we don't know is what is it that is being accomplished. We've been told the lockdown is to lower the caseload at the hospitals. What we don't know is how many lives are the hospitals saving? If there is no treatment, and we read things like 90% of the people on ventilators die, then how many lives are actually being saved by hospital treatment? Would the same percentage of people survive if there was no hospital treatment? If we ruined 20 million people's livelyhoods and ruined peoples lives emotionally, what have we accomplished? Has anybody read anything on this?

These sorts of analysis go on all the time. For example, states decide where to spend highway funds. There are dangerous roads that need a divided highway, but the state decides to spend the money elsewhere because the deaths per million miles traveled is below a threshold. We let drunk drivers kill people all the time.

I'm curious if there is any sort of analysis going on that says what we are doing is effective.
 
Paul F said:
We've been told the lockdown is to lower the caseload at the hospitals. What we don't know is how many lives are the hospitals saving? If there is no treatment, and we read things like 90% of the people on ventilators die, then how many lives are actually being saved by hospital treatment? Would the same percentage of people survive if there was no hospital treatment? If we ruined 20 million people's livelyhoods and ruined peoples lives emotionally, what have we accomplished? Has anybody read anything on this?
Click to expand...

I haven't heard any government official mention "flattening the curve" in weeks. Currently, the purpose of the lockdown is to limit the risks of people getting infected. Therefore, the considerations that you bring up about treatment and the benefits of certain therapies don't matter in regards to what needs to be done to reduce infections.
 
Paul F said:
The statistics I provided are from the CDC. Oddly, men's suicides peak after 70 years old. Who would have guessed?

What we aren't hearing about is a cost-benefit analysis. We're all in this together to save lives. But what we don't know is what is it that is being accomplished. We've been told the lockdown is to lower the caseload at the hospitals. What we don't know is how many lives are the hospitals saving? If there is no treatment, and we read things like 90% of the people on ventilators die, then how many lives are actually being saved by hospital treatment? Would the same percentage of people survive if there was no hospital treatment? If we ruined 20 million people's livelyhoods and ruined peoples lives emotionally, what have we accomplished? Has anybody read anything on this?

These sorts of analysis go on all the time. For example, states decide where to spend highway funds. There are dangerous roads that need a divided highway, but the state decides to spend the money elsewhere because the deaths per million miles traveled is below a threshold. We let drunk drivers kill people all the time.

I'm curious if there is any sort of analysis going on that says what we are doing is effective.
Click to expand...
When you say "peak" do you mean they increase after 70yo, or plateau and decrease after 70yo?
 
The CDC reported the suicide rates by age group as suicides per 100,000. The 75 and over age group for men has the highest suicide rate for men. (I said 70 in my other post; couldn't remember what the graph said).

Men

75 and over - 40/100,000 men
65 - 74 - 25/100,000 men
45 - 64 - 30/100,000 men
25 - 44 - 25/100,000 men
15 - 24 - 18/100,000 men

Women

75 and over - 4/100,000 women
65 - 74 - 6/100,000 women
45 - 64 - 10/100,000 women
25 - 44 - 8/100,000 women
15 - 24 - 2/100,000 women
 
Paul F said:
To put it in perspective, driving deaths are 11.2/100,000.
Click to expand...

I know a few 70+ year olds that committed suicide. I had no idea it was also a static.

We can hope that driving safety is improved with self driving cars for commuters.


But I have no idea what we can do about making old age better. Predatory debt and a system which doesn't value the elders because we have wisdom from other places, I just don't see the meaning in living past 70 if you made bad choices earlier in life. And many of us do. It is a dark and sobering fact that the percentage of suicides increases.

I was completely unaware of this until you brought this stat to my attention, and I will be more mindful going forward. genuinely thank you.
 
It's an example of how we can have assumptions of 'facts' based upon what is presented to us. I'd never have guessed that suicides are highest in the Spring and lowest in December. We get the suicide stories around the December holiday season and it only seems natural that suicides would be up during the dark, cold winter. Intuition is often faulty. Here's another one that surprised me - The murder rate was twice as high when baby boomers were in their 20s and 30s then it is today. Who knew? Ok Millenials, bring on the wise cracks.

When I find these things out, it makes me wonder what else I am ignorant about. That's why I am asking about the efficacy of hospitalization for the virus. Are we spinning our wheels or is it effective? Ignorant minds want to know.
 
Here's a pre- Covid (2018) story backing up Paul's Dr. suicide stats. I don't even want to think what they might be Q1 this year...

"The medical profession relies on the premise that doctors and medical staff, like highly trained endurance athletes, are conditioned to clock long hours and ignore fatigue and the emotional toll of their work.

But, for many in the profession, that day-in-day-out stress can lead to crippling depression. It is one reason doctors are far more likely than the general population to die by suicide.
A particular danger for doctors trying to fend off suicidal urges is that they know exactly how to end their own lives and often have easy access to the means...

An estimated 300 to 400 doctors kill themselves each year, a rate of 28 to 40 per 100,000 or more than double that of general population.

They're also working to reduce bureaucratic frustrations... And the company has allocated millions of dollars a year for scribes, the medical staffers who trail ER physicians and enter notes into often-finicky electronic record-keeping devices...

A family practitioner from Eugene, Ore., points to medical schools, which she sees as perpetuating a culture that becomes ingrained — one where "powering through" consecutive work shifts means you've arrived...

"You don't focus on the 99 you save," the doctor says. "You end up focusing on the one that you lose."

https://www.npr.org/sections/health...es-medical-industry-rethinks-how-doctors-work

I've always thought the insane schedules of interns and residents is inhumane- and just asking for mistakes. There's groups working to change that kind of scheduling, but the culture is "I did it, so you get to do it".

Doctors need to take off the Superman capes and be treated as humans.

Kind of makes me feel foolish for stressing on set or worrying about clients or color balances...
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top