Need help? Please call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1 (800) 273-8255, or visit www.suicidepreventionlifeline.org to chat with a counselor.
By Laura French
NEW YORK — An FDNY EMT died by suicide while off duty last week, the department announced Friday.
FDNY EMT Brandon Dorsa, 36, who had served with the department for nearly six years, died on Wednesday, according to the New York Post.
Dorsa had been seriously injured in a rollover ambulance crash in 2015, after an SUV hit his rig near the Brooklyn Bridge. In addition to physical injuries, Dorsa suffered severe psychological trauma after the crash, and was awarded $11.5 million in a lawsuit related to the crash last year.
Dorsa is the third FDNY EMS provider to die by suicide this year. EMT John Mondello, 23, died in April, and Lt. Matthew Keene, 38, died in June.
“We are saddened to hear that another FDNY EMT has taken his life,” FDNY EMS Local 2507 President Oren Barzilay said in a statement, according to the New York Post. “PTSD is very common among EMS providers, not just here in NYC but throughout our country, more so in recent months. EMS needs additional resources to help us cope with the exposure EMT’s & Paramedics are faced with on a daily basis, the increasing level of seeing death on a daily basis, and on top of it poverty wages, combine it all, it has proven to take a toll on those in the front lines.”