A Call to Action In Honor of Dr. Lorna Breen
In a tragedy within a crisis, Dr. Lorna Breen — medical director in the ER at NY Presbyterian Hospital — took her own life this past Sunday, after describing to her family the traumatic scenes that she had witnessed Having previously survived her own encounter with the virus, she had returned to her work saving others. She was 49.
There is a canary-in-the-coal-mine aspect to this horrible loss; we must prepare today for the psychological toll being exacted on these heroic professionals, from doctors and nurses to EMT’s and first responders who have been our front line in an unexpected and chaotic war. We have failed some of them already by not providing them with the equipment and protection that they needed and, at a minimum, deserved to have in unrestricted abundance… we must not fail them a second time by being late or inadequate in our provision of whatever help or support they need now, tomorrow and whenever they can finally put the worst of this behind them to deal with their experiences.
The keys here are two things: communication and proactivity. We need to communicate aggressively and clearly to all of the first responders that help is there, and will be there whenever they feel that they need it. They need to know that we have prioritized that help and that their internal challenges are not unexpected or a source of weakness, but rather the inevitable price of their labors, and support part of the process. Robust and specific programs must be put in place that provides safe harbors for judgment-free treatment without cost. The programs must be professionally developed, maintained, and followed up on, with open exchanges of information and outcomes to deal effectively with an unprecedented impact.
Equally important, we must be proactive rather than reactive. Throughout this pandemic, we have been behind the curve, attempting to catch up to the circumstances rather than get ahead of them… that has been a predominant failing, costing lives and treasure in unconscionable quantities, and cannot be the case here. The time to develop and install these programs is yesterday, so there needs to be an all-out effort to put them in place, locally sited and nationally coordinated, without delay.
We do not need to count the future Dr. Breen’s before we know what’s needed… we already can be assured that any stalling in dedicating the resources and efforts will cost us more precious lives of heroes. If our mourning for her loss is sincere, we can only prove it by our actions, and by making her tragic loss as unique as possible.
