These were Dr. Breen’s haunting words in her last conversation with a close friend, “I couldn’t help anyone. I couldn’t do anything. I just wanted to help people, and I couldn’t do anything.”
Today’s article in the New York Times highlights both her personal devastating experience with COVID and the overwhelming onslaught of patients in our ER with the same disease that we were ill-prepared to treat. But all of us – doctors, nurses, and ERTs, tried our best in a hopeless situation.
I’ll always remember her as a commanding and dignified ER medical director, someone I could turn to for help and guidance. She was fiercely dedicated to her patients and staff, a natural leader.
Her loss is still unreal, but reading this helps me process it. Life is short and precious.
Enjoy it while you’re here – you never know when your time is about to run out.