Story COVID Dr. Kills Self, Considered a Hero

[Partial-Elf]

This story came through my Facebook feed:

Story

The headline reads "prominent manhattan E.R. doctor on frontline of covid crisis kills herself."

To me, what's most interesting is the following quote by her father, which indicates an acceptance of her suicide:

"She gave what she had, and she's a casualty of the war in the trenches, as far as I'm concerned," her father, Dr. Philip Breen, told The News. "She's a true hero."

Later, he says:

"She was a very outgoing, very energetic person who, I don't know what snapped, but something blew up in her, and so she ended up taking her own life," he said. "She just ran out of emotional gas."

If only every suicide were viewed with this degree of understanding. I guess this hit me hard because I just want my own parents to view my suicide this way. Because it'd be accurate: I've given what I've had and run out of emotional gas. Is that as literally and obvious as it is in this case? No, but why should it have to be? Is it any less real?

How is it that some people get to be celebrated as heroes in their suicide, while the rest of us are cast aside as villains?

 

[JSauter]

I do wonder how she died. NY Post and NY Times articles say, "succumbed to self-inflicted injuries".

 

[DJ2000]

"it's seen as a sign ay thir (society is) ain failure. The fact that ye jist simply choose tae reject whit they huv tae offer." - Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting

 

[artificialpasta]

How is it that some people get to be celebrated as heroes in their suicide, while the rest of us are cast aside as villains?

Because saving lives is an objectively selfless thing to do. Many health workers are undercompensated and overwhelmed by the crisis but they choose to work anyway. Unfortunately many governments think they can get away with calling them heroes instead of providing them the equipment, funding, and mental health support they desperately need.

 

[Qbert]

Because saving lives is an objectively selfless thing to do. Many health workers are undercompensated and overwhelmed by the crisis but they choose to work anyway. Unfortunately many governments think they can get away with calling them heroes instead of providing them the equipment, funding, and mental health support they desperately need.

Well said

 

[Partial-Elf]

Because saving lives is an objectively selfless thing to do. Many health workers are undercompensated and overwhelmed by the crisis but they choose to work anyway. Unfortunately many governments think they can get away with calling them heroes instead of providing them the equipment, funding, and mental health support they desperately need.

I'm a teacher and union activist, so I think I fit the bill as well

 

[Talokin]

I'm ashamed that these kind of articles make me jealous and mad....
:(
If I knew the woman, I'm sure I'd feel differently. But I've been suicidal for almost 3 decades and ran out of emotional gas long ago. My parents' response to my death is likely to be an eye-roll and relief because I cannot "harass" them anyone.

(My parents kicked me out of family therapy 2 years ago because, I didn't vote Democrat. I did not vote at all. They have been accusing me of being a White Supremacist...so they are bad bad humans.
A month ago, my car wouldn't start and I have a debilitating verbal dysfluency, so I asked for their help in getting it to a mechanic. I was REALLY wanted to go grocery shopping... My parents put it off a month, even though they know I have NO one else to help me. They were too busy volunteering at a food pantry)

 

[RayoSinSol]

Context and marketing. The COVID19 pandemic makes headlines for being a threat to all of mankind. If the news companies disrespected her at this moment, it would be seen as a disgrace against a person fighting a historical threat to mankind, who buckled under the pressure.

Covering her suicide also helps news companies expand on their narrative that the pandemic is uprooting lives and causing chaos (which it admittedly is, for medical workers at the very least).

Hate to say it, but it's really nothing to envy. They're using her death as a shock element to expand on a narrative; nothing extraordinary when you see it from the lens of journalistic marketing.

If she had killed herself at any other point, her story would be ignored and her name would obscured just like most other suicides.

 

[disabledandhopeless]

Funny humans

 

[HopeDiesLast]

How is it that some people get to be celebrated as heroes in their suicide, while the rest of us are cast aside as villains?

She's being celebrated as a hero because of the sacrifices she made while she was ALIVE -- not because she killed herself.

 

[Partial-Elf]

She's being celebrated as a hero because of the sacrifices she made while she was ALIVE -- not because she killed herself.

But can't that be true of every suicide? I don't work in healthcare but I've made plenty of sacrifices

 

[artificialpasta]

I'm a teacher and union activist, so I think I fit the bill as well

If you're still forced to work and put yourself out there then I'm sorry for what you have to sacrifice. But I don't think it's fair to equate that to what health workers go through; them going to work means literally exposing themselves to a virus we barely understand while underequipped and undermanned. In my country we see headlines every day of our top doctors dying, some of whom are professors at my uni.

 

[Partial-Elf]

If you're still forced to work and put yourself out there then I'm sorry for what you have to sacrifice. But I don't think it's fair to equate that to what health workers go through; them going to work means literally exposing themselves to a virus we barely understand while underequipped and undermanned. In my country we see headlines every day of our top doctors dying, some of whom are professors at my uni.

I agree. I have been continuing to deliver foods to underprivileged students, but that's voluntary. I guess the point I'm making is that people in other professions can be overwhelmed by the trauma they face every day and it can make for a noble suicide. Educators in my state have been underequipped and undermanned for decades. I get that it's not the same, but the value is in the comparison

 

[PrettyMoose]

Another person who died by suicide was Dieter Dengler, a US pilot during the Vietnam war. There was a movie made about him after his suicide called Rescue Dawn and he is played by Christian Bale. He no doubt went through a lot of shit and his story is an important one to tell. That said, even the movie neglected to mention his eventual suicide. Even if it had, I doubt anyone would say the usual bullshit that they say about suicides, "selfish" and "the coward's way out" and all that bogus crap.


"Dengler was diagnosed with ALS, an incurable neurological disorder; on February 7, 2001, he rolled his wheelchair from his house down to the driveway of a fire station and shot himself. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. A Navy honor guard was present at the burial as well as a fly-over by Navy F-14 Tomcats."

Dieter Dengler - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

 

[Partial-Elf]

Another person who died by suicide was Dieter Dengler, a US pilot during the Vietnam war. There was a movie made about him after his suicide called Rescue Dawn and he is played by Christian Bale. He no doubt went through a lot of shit and his story is an important one to tell. That said, even the movie neglected to mention his eventual suicide. Even if it had, I doubt anyone would say the usual bullshit that they say about suicides, "selfish" and "the coward's way out" and all that bogus crap.


"Dengler was diagnosed with ALS, an incurable neurological disorder; on February 7, 2001, he rolled his wheelchair from his house down to the driveway of a fire station and shot himself. He was buried in Arlington National Cemetery. A Navy honor guard was present at the burial as well as a fly-over by Navy F-14 Tomcats."

Dieter Dengler - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

This is insane. To me his suicide seems so essential to the whole thing.

Here's another similar story, this one of a rookie EMT in New York who recently suicided for similar reasons to the doctor:

Story

Again, portrayed in a very positive, understanding light:

'"He's a wonderful boy and they're a wonderful family," a relative said Saturday. "We are totally devastated. Beautiful personality. Big heart.'

Lots of good analysis in this thread, and I think @RayoSinSol really gets to the core of it. It's in the news' interest to portray their suicides this way, and is also very easy for people to understand. If I were to suicide because I'm alienated, in emotional pain, and don't enjoy life or society, no one would have any interest in valorizing that and it doesn't fit into any larger narrative.

@DJ2000 I love the movie version of Trainspotting, and that quote is very accurate for me. I'm really not interested in anything society has to offer, or if I am, it pales in comparison with the inconveniences and frustrations of being alive.

 

[RayoSinSol]

This is insane. To me his suicide seems so essential to the whole thing.

Here's another similar story, this one of a rookie EMT in New York who recently suicided for similar reasons to the doctor:

Story

Again, portrayed in a very positive, understanding light:

'"He's a wonderful boy and they're a wonderful family," a relative said Saturday. "We are totally devastated. Beautiful personality. Big heart.'

Lots of good analysis in this thread, and I think @RayoSinSol really gets to the core of it. It's in the news' interest to portray their suicides this way, and is also very easy for people to understand. If I were to suicide because I'm alienated, in emotional pain, and don't enjoy life or society, no one would have any interest in valorizing that and it doesn't fit into any larger narrative.

@DJ2000 I love the movie version of Trainspotting, and that quote is very accurate for me. I'm really not interested in anything society has to offer, or if I am, it pales in comparison with the inconveniences and frustrations of being alive.

I agree with you that our society SHOULD be more understanding of peoples' suicides. Every suicide does fit into a larger narrative, because emotional pain and alienation don't appear out of thin air; it comes from daily life.

It's just, that's not really the kind of narrative I think most people in American society (or most other places) are presently ready to talk about en masse, in a deep and insightful way. Certainly not mainstream news companies.

Simple and dramatic sells ads, not deep and insightful.

With the right resources, that would be a truly powerful movement to execute - to humanize the suffering of people who choose to end their own lives. For now, at least there are some little enclaves of truly free expression here and there.

 

[itsamadworld]

This story came through my Facebook feed:

Story

The headline reads "prominent manhattan E.R. doctor on frontline of covid crisis kills herself."

To me, what's most interesting is the following quote by her father, which indicates an acceptance of her suicide:

"She gave what she had, and she's a casualty of the war in the trenches, as far as I'm concerned," her father, Dr. Philip Breen, told The News. "She's a true hero."

Later, he says:

"She was a very outgoing, very energetic person who, I don't know what snapped, but something blew up in her, and so she ended up taking her own life," he said. "She just ran out of emotional gas."

If only every suicide were viewed with this degree of understanding. I guess this hit me hard because I just want my own parents to view my suicide this way. Because it'd be accurate: I've given what I've had and run out of emotional gas. Is that as literally and obvious as it is in this case? No, but why should it have to be? Is it any less real?

How is it that some people get to be celebrated as heroes in their suicide, while the rest of us are cast aside as villains?

We're all war-heroes and casualties of this modern day slave system. Regardless of occupation, station, or no occupation. No one is free here.....There's something really f-d up about this planet. It's very dystopian and controlling.....

 

[TimeToBiteTheDust]

Ironic someone who saved lives couldn't save herself. May she rest in peace.

 

[DJ2000]

This is insane. To me his suicide seems so essential to the whole thing.

Here's another similar story, this one of a rookie EMT in New York who recently suicided for similar reasons to the doctor:

Story

Again, portrayed in a very positive, understanding light:

'"He's a wonderful boy and they're a wonderful family," a relative said Saturday. "We are totally devastated. Beautiful personality. Big heart.'

Lots of good analysis in this thread, and I think @RayoSinSol really gets to the core of it. It's in the news' interest to portray their suicides this way, and is also very easy for people to understand. If I were to suicide because I'm alienated, in emotional pain, and don't enjoy life or society, no one would have any interest in valorizing that and it doesn't fit into any larger narrative.

@DJ2000 I love the movie version of Trainspotting, and that quote is very accurate for me. I'm really not interested in anything society has to offer, or if I am, it pales in comparison with the inconveniences and frustrations of being alive.

Me too, when I first saw the movie I was impressed and inspired by Dr attitude of the characters involved. Although that quote only appears in the book, not that I've read it.
It's not just about shooting heroin, the whole book is a critique of Lamestream Society and contemporary life. Heroin is a unique drug; it's more of a world that you enter. Heroin nods are more like going back and forth between a trip. Hence Renton is enabled to criticize society and everything from that atomized position:
"Society invents a spurious convoluted logic tae absorb and change people whae's behavior is outside the mainstream. Suppose that ah ken aw the pros and cons, know that ah'm gaunnae huv a short life, am ah sound mind, ectetera, ectetera, but still want tae use smack? They won't let ye dae it. They won't let ye dae it, because it's seen as a sign ay thir ain failure. The fact that ye jist simply choose tae reject whit they huv tae offer. Choose us. Choose life. Choose mortgage payments; choose washing machines; choose cars; choose sitting oan a couch watching mind-numbing and spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing fuckin junk food intae yir mooth. Choose rotting away, pishing and shiteing yersel in a home, a total fuckin embarrassment tae the selfish, fucked-up brats ye've produced. Choose life. Well, ah choose no tae choose life. If the cunts cannae handle that, it's thair fuckin problem."

 

[attell2]

I think once this calms down we're going to be hearing a lot horror stories about what the working conditions were really like in hospitals and this might not be as surprising