The NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital confirmed the death of one of a top emergency room doctor, Lorna Breen, in a statement on Tuesday evening.
“Words cannot convey the sense of loss we feel today,” a statement from the hospital to news outlets said. “Dr. Breen is a hero who brought the highest ideals of medicine to the challenging front lines of the emergency department. Our focus today is to provide support to her family, friends, and colleagues as they cope with this news during what is already an extraordinarily difficult time.”
Breen, 49, worked for Allen Hospital in Upper Manhattan, according to the NewYork-Presbyterian website.
Tyler Hawn, a spokesman for the Charlottesville Police Department in Virginia, also confirmed the doctor’s death and said she committed suicide.
“The victim was taken to U.V.A. Hospital for treatment, but later succumbed to self-inflicted injuries,” Hawn told the New York Times.
Her father added the newspaper that the 49-year-old had contracted the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, a type of novel coronavirus, but recovered.
Breen had described the “onslaught of patients who were dying before they could even be taken out of ambulances,” according to her father, Dr. Phillip Breen.
A friend and former colleague of Breen’s told news outlets that she is heartbroken.
“I originally felt sad and now I just feel devastated,” said Dr. Debbie Yi Madhok, ABC7 reported. “With all these people who are asking for lockdown to end, what about us?”
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