Birdsong, blaring sirens: A pandemic in sound. Video / AP
Warning: This article is about suicide and may be distressing for some readers.
A top doctor working in New York, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak in the US, committed suicide after witnessing patients dying from coronavirus on the "frontline" of her hospital's emergency room.
Lorna Breen, the medical director of the emergency department at NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital in Manhattan, had described to her father in the days before her death the toll her work had taken on her and her colleagues.
Dr Philip Breen said his 49-year-old daughter had not suffered from mental illness and she had sounded distraught when she talked about seeing patients dying before they could even be taken out of ambulances.
She had contracted Covid-19 and took some time off work to recover before returning. The hospital sent her home again, and her family brought her to the family house in Virginia.
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A spokesman for the Charlottesville Police Department said. "The victim was taken to UVA Hospital for treatment, but later succumbed."
In a statement, NewYork-Presbyterian agreed Breen was a "hero who brought the highest ideals of medicine to the challenging front lines of the emergency department.
Patients are brought into Wyckoff Heights Medical Center by staff wearing personal protective gear due to COVID-19 concerns. AP Photo / John Minchillo
"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."
The 200-bed hospital has at times had as many as 170 patients with Covid-19. As of April 7, there had been 59 patient deaths at the hospital, according to an internal document.
New York has the highest death toll of any city in the world. The US has recorded the highest number of cases - nearly one million - and more than 58,000 deaths.
New York state has seen nearly a third of all American deaths and has been overwhelmed in recent weeks with the growing number of casualties flooding its hospitals and morgues.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has led the response to the Covid 19 coronavirus pandemic which has claimed 58,000 lives as medical facilities were overrun. AP Photo / John Minchillo
Mental health groups have warned that post-traumatic stress from the pandemic is becoming a crisis.
Two days before Breen is believed to have taken her life, a paramedic from the New York borough the Bronx also did so.
John Mondello, 23, worked out of EMS Station 18 in the Bronx, which handles one of the biggest 911 call volumes in the city.
"The group that is most at risk are the front-line health care workers,'' said Debra Kaysen, head of Stanford University's International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies.
