Lorna Margaret Breen (October 9, 1970 – April 26, 2020) was an American physician who was the emergency room director at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. She died by suicide in 2020, while taking a break with family in

Charlottesville, Virginia Charlottesville, colloquially known as C'ville, is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. It is the county seat of Albemarle County, which surrounds the city, though the two are separate legal entities. It is named after Queen Ch ...

during the coronavirus pandemic.

Early life

Breen was born in Charlottesville, Virginia, and raised in Danville, Pennsylvania. She graduated from Wyoming Seminary in 1988. She received a master's degree at

Cornell University Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...

and attended Medical College of Virginia before doing a residency at Long Island Jewish Medical Center.

Career

Breen worked in The Allen Hospital at the NewYork-Presbyterian, where during spring of 2020 she treated patients with

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. She contracted the virus herself then went back to work after isolating for a week and a half. On a family break in

, she died by suicide on April 26, 2020. Her father said: "She was truly in the trenches of the frontline. She tried to do her job, and it killed her ..Make sure she’s praised as a hero. Because she was, she’s a casualty just as much as anyone else who has died."

Selected works

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References

External links

* , '' Today'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Breen, Lorna 1970 births 2020 deaths 2020 suicides 21st-century American physicians 21st-century American women physicians American emergency physicians American women academics Columbia Medical School faculty Medical College of Virginia alumni People from Charlottesville, Virginia Physicians from New York City Suicides in Virginia Wyoming Seminary alumni