A New York emergency physician who treated coronavirus patients committed suicide, with family members, police and doctors linking his death to the trauma faced by health workers fighting the outbreak.

Lorna Breen, 49, died Sunday of self-inflicted injuries in Charlottesville, Virginia, where she had been staying with her family, police said in a statement.
Brian ran the emergency department at New York Presbyterian Allen Hospital in Manhattan, a facility that has seen a large influx of patients with COVID-19.

While it is unclear why he killed himself, his family, police and doctors note that the stress caused by the outbreak has contributed to his death.
She tried to do her job and killed her, her father Philip Brain told the New York Times.

She said she had no history of mental illness and that she had contracted the coronavirus before returning to work and then being sent home.

The front-line healthcare professionals and first responders are not immune to the mental or physical impacts of the current epidemic, said Charlottesville Police Chief Rachal Brackney.
The president of the American College of Emergency Physicians, of which Brain was a member, said his death was a tragic reminder of the suffering of many health workers.

The impossible situation in many of our hospitals causes severe injuries.

William Jackies said in a statement on the group's website I can only imagine Dr. Brain was more than she could afford, not because of weakness, but from the strength of her sympathy.
Her hospital described her as a heroine who brought the highest ideals of medicine to the difficult front lines of the emergency department.

More than 17,300 people have died from COVID-19 through New York State the epicenter of the disease in the United States.