Lorna Breen


Lorna Margaret Breen 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 during the COVID-19 pandemic in [the United States|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 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. She contracted the virus herself then went back to work after isolating for a week and a half. On a family break in Charlottesville, Virginia, 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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