New York ER Doctor Commit Suicide after being sent home from hospital due to COVID-19

Written by Alberta Parish

This past Sunday, a New York ER doctor, who was on the frontlines of this pandemic, took her own life. According to the New York Post, Lorna Breen returned to work after recovering from the coronavirus. Yaron Steinbuch, a reporter for the Post wrote, “A close pal of the doctor has told the Post that “it broke her” when she was told she still wasn’t well enough to return to work and was instructed to go back home.” Breen’s father “added that his daughter — whom he remembered as a salsa dancer, a nursing home volunteer and a snowboarder — had not been struggling with any emotional problems.”

Like Breen, many are working longer hours, sometimes around the clock, doing all they can to save the lives of their patients even while risking their own lives. Seeing all this death daily is not something everyone can process and live with. I wish I could say you will hear the last of a doctor committing suicide. As long as this virus wreaks havoc across the globe, the number of suicides will increase. Not only will medical care professionals commit suicide, but also those who have lost parents, children, and others with whom they shared a close bond. The psychological impact this pandemic generates has not only led to more suicide deaths but also a rise in domestic violence cases as many people are now grappling with economic difficulties having lost their job or business due to COVID-19 and also being forced to stay at home where they are in close proximity to their abusers. There will probably be an increase in involuntary and voluntary psychiatric hospital admissions as new coronavirus cases continue to rise over the summer killing more and more people. COVID-19, although not deadlier than Ebola, MERS and SARS, has a current mortality rate of 4.5%. The novel virus also known as SARS-CoV-2 may not kill as fast as Ebola, MERS and SARS, but its mortality rate is still higher than that of the 1918 Spanish Flu even though the world’s population during the 1918 flu pandemic was 1.8 billion, according to a report on CNBC.

Unlike the Spanish Flu which killed roughly 50 million people over two years, the coronavirus pandemic has killed fewer in numbers as current deaths exceed 227,000 worldwide. Unfortunately, this virus will continue killing people. When I witnessed state governors reopening non-essential services to the public amid rising coronavirus deaths, I knew then the number of coronavirus cases will increase because they don’t care about saving lives. Therefore, I am not optimistic about the federal government’s ability to contain the spread of this virus. State governors are more interested in saving the economy while placing undue strain on emergency medical services and healthcare professionals who will be working on the frontlines of this pandemic for the next year or two as they battle new coronavirus cases.

The “New” Normal During COVID-19

Today, I had this real eerie feeling as I thought about the world, and America’s future. I can see people’s anxiety and fear as we all face uncertain times. I know I am now living in a world which is anything but normal and there never will be a return to normalcy no matter what our political leaders tell us. I think what we are currently seeing throughout the world is the new normal, and this new normal consists of social distancing and mandatory vaccinations for all living persons. This new normal also consists of greater surveillance and censorship of differing opinions. There is no such thing as freedom of speech and freedom of the press in a New World Order.

Many of you are still living under the illusion of freedom, not realizing the whole world has been turned upside down right before your eyes. What made anybody think the United States before COVID-19 would remain the same forever? What made you think the world would never change, and you could just live out your last days on Planet Earth happy-go-lucky and retire from that “great” job with that “great” pension or 401K plan? “We’re not in Kansas anymore.”

I wish I could tell you something that would make you feel better or more optimistic, but it simply wouldn’t be the truth. The truth is, I do not see a good future for America. Neither do I feel this is the same nation I grew up in. In fact, I already see a fallen nation. The United States as an idea has reached its end. The United States is no more exceptional than other nations that have come to power over a short period of time and fell overnight. What once constituted the Roman Empire, only a semblance of it exists today throughout Europe. You see only ruins of the Great Coliseum and Roman temples, which serves as a constant reminder that everything has a beginning and ending. The United States as an idea will completely cease to exist. Then, all this place will have left is ghosts…ghosts of the past glory that existed within these borders, where slaves built the cities and towns and made this nation the great economic power of the world. Generations will sing of her ruins as her light no longer shines to all nations.

What many took for granted prior to COVID-19 is no longer available or it is simply out of reach. True freedom is no longer in close reach. The American Dream is not in close reach. Many things people took for granted is no longer an option, because we now must live in a new “COVID-19” society. Welcome to the “new” normal.

THE END

Works Cited

Steinbuch, Yaron. “Dad of NY doctor Lorna Breen says she ‘was in the trenches’ before suicide.” 29 April 2020. Web 29 April 2020. New York Post.

Retrieved from https://nypost.com/2020/04/29/father-of-er-doctor-lorna-breen-she-put-her-life-on-the-line/

Lovelace, Berkeley Jr. “The coronavirus may be deadlier than the 1918 flu: Here’s how it stacks up to other pandemics.” 26 March 2020. Web. 29 April 2020. CNBC.

Retrieved from https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/26/coronavirus-may-be-deadlier-than-1918-flu-heres-how-it-stacks-up-to-other-pandemics.html