Pandemic Takes a Toll on Lives Beyond Patients

Due to stressful work environments caused by COVID-19, two healthcare workers in Manhattan became victims of suicide on April 27, exposing mental health concerns associated with healthcare workers during the pandemic.  

The world lost Dr. Lorna Breen, a 49-year-old medical director of the emergency department at New York-Presbyterian Allen Hospital and John Mondello, a 23-year-old emergency medical technician at New York City Fire Department's Emergency Medical Services, due to grueling hours, unprecedented stress and having to witness numerous deaths, according to Business Insider. 

“She was truly in the trenches on the front line,’’ father of Lorna Breen, Dr. Phillip Breen said in an interview with the New York Times. “She tried to do her job, and it killed her.”

On top of having to risk infecting themselves as well as loved ones, healthcare workers are required to battle the negative emotional toll of watching patients pass away, according to Dr. Shauna Springer, psychologist and trauma-recovery expert at the Stella Center in Illinois, in an interview with Business Insider. 

“They're working really long hours, they're seeing these traumas that are burning into their minds, and they have very limited time to release," Springer said. “They tell me that they carry a heavy burden of responsibility when they lose a patient, [and that every life lost] can feel like a moral injury.”

Others express concerns for a potential upcoming increase in physician suicide rates of the pandemic. Although doctors were already susceptible to suicide prior to the crisis, Dr. Sandro Galea, of the Boston University School of Public Health, and colleagues wrote in a JAMA Internal Medicine article that stress, trauma and isolation caused by the pandemic may bring the “perfect storm” among medical professionals.

A study focusing on healthcare workers who worked with COVID-19 patients found that in China, 50.4% of surveyed medical workers experienced depression and 71.5% experienced distress. Italy, Iran and Indonesia also had COVID-19 related suicides of healthcare workers, according to National Observer.

In order for health care workers to continue treating patients with Coronavirus, Dr. Charles Marmar, chair of the department of psychiatry and director of the PTSD research program at New York University suggested in an interview with Business Insider that it is necessary for workers to relieve stress and prevent themselves from gaining chronic psychiatric problems. 

“After practicing for 20 years and being a third-generation doctor, I can tell you this is new territory,” Dr. Niran Al-Agba, who runs a private practice in Seattle said in an interview with New York Times. “I don’t know if we’ve ever had to go to work and fear for our lives in the same way.”