Skip to content
  • About
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Book
  • Careers
  • Podcast
  • Recommended
  • Speaking
  • All
  • Physician
  • Practice
  • Policy
  • Finance
  • Conditions
  • .edu
  • Patient
  • Meds
  • Tech
  • Social
  • Video
    • All
    • Physician
    • Practice
    • Policy
    • Finance
    • Conditions
    • .edu
    • Patient
    • Meds
    • Tech
    • Social
    • Video
    • About
    • Contact
    • Contribute
    • Book
    • Careers
    • Podcast
    • Recommended
    • Speaking

Why aren’t more people talking about physician suicide?

Pamela Wible, MD
Physician
November 26, 2012
Share
Tweet
Share

I live in Eugene — a sweet little community with snow-capped mountains, farmers’ markets and the friendliest people around.

But a few weeks ago, one of our beloved pediatricians shot himself in the head in a public park. Earlier this year, one of our surgeons was found dead in his car from carbon monoxide poisoning.

And just before him, a urologist shot himself in the head in his backyard. Before him, a local anesthesiologist was found dead of an overdose in a closet and a family physician jumped in front of a train.

What does it mean when our healers take their own lives?

And why aren’t more people talking about physician suicide?

Maybe the real problem is that we can’t say the word suicide. Newspapers don’t like to print the word suicide, unless the family mentions it in the obituary.

In fact, when I do a Google search for the names of physicians who have committed suicide, I find no mention of the word “suicide.” When I Google “Oregon physician suicide,” I find links on physician-assisted suicide. And I guess this is the ultimate act of physician-­assisted suicide — but not the kind anyone would approve of.

Doctors have the highest suicide rate of any profession. In the United States, we lose a physician a day to suicide. That’s two to three entire medical school classes per year.

I dated two fellow medical students during my training. Both are dead. One, an internist in his early 40s, was found in a hotel room with pain pills. My anatomy class partner — a pediatric urologist in his early 30s — “died suddenly.” I’ve never found out how. Or why.

We deserve to know why our doctors are dying, why the mental health of our healers deteriorates during training, why our young medical students have a high risk for burnout, depression and suicide.

Since nobody likes to talk about suicide, I’ll start.

In the fall of 2004, I was suicidal. I didn’t have a gun or a stockpile of pills, but I could have easily acquired both.

Why was I suicidal? Situational depression. What was the situation? My beloved profession had been stolen from me. How? By bureaucrats and middlemen who had inserted themselves between me and my patients and sucked the joy right out of my career.

ADVERTISEMENT

Fortunately, rather than kill myself or continue to hold myself and my patients hostage in a dysfunctional medical system, I held town hall meetings where I invited citizens to design their ideal clinic. I collected 100 pages of testimony, adopted 90 percent of feedback and opened our clinic one month later.

In 2005, the people in my sweet little community had created the first community-­designed ideal clinic in America.

Now, reporters fly here from all over the country to study our clinic with such happy patients and an unusually joyful doctor. Doctors don’t need to be victims of a health care system gone awry. Hundreds of physicians have opened ideal clinics nationwide. And more and more doctors are choosing to live — and love medicine.

Maybe if my dead colleagues could have experienced more joy in their careers, they wouldn’t be dead. We must investigate why our healers are harming themselves.

But if all we are told is that another doctor “died suddenly,” then the conversation ends.

Pamela Wible pioneered the community-designed ideal medical clinic and blogs at Ideal Medical Care. She is the author of Pet Goats and Pap Smears.

Prev

Does the use of digital medicine preclude human connection?

November 26, 2012 Kevin 3
…
Next

I want to be there when that cancer freight train hits

November 26, 2012 Kevin 5
…

Tagged as: Pediatrics, Primary Care, Psychiatry

Post navigation

< Previous Post
Does the use of digital medicine preclude human connection?
Next Post >
I want to be there when that cancer freight train hits

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

More by Pamela Wible, MD

  • When health care professionals lose everything

    Pamela Wible, MD
  • Surgeon suicides: Unveiling a silent crisis

    Pamela Wible, MD
  • 13 tips for depressed doctors who need confidential mental health care

    Pamela Wible, MD

More in Physician

  • How a rainy walk helped an oncologist rediscover joy and bravery

    Dr. Damane Zehra
  • How inspiration and family stories shape our most meaningful moments

    Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA
  • A day in the life of a WHO public health professional in Meghalaya, India

    Dr. Poulami Mazumder
  • Why women doctors are still mistaken for nurses

    Emma Fenske, DO
  • Adriana Smith’s story: a medical tragedy under heartbeat laws

    Nicole M. King, MD
  • Why U.S. health care pricing is so confusing—and how to fix it

    Ashish Mandavia, MD
  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • Why removing fluoride from water is a public health disaster

      Steven J. Katz, DDS | Conditions
    • When did we start treating our lives like trauma?

      Maureen Gibbons, MD | Physician
    • Why male fertility needs to be part of every health conversation

      Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian | Conditions
    • How a rainy walk helped an oncologist rediscover joy and bravery

      Dr. Damane Zehra | Physician
    • Inside human trafficking: a guide to recognizing and preventing it [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Graduating from medical school without family: a story of strength and survival

      Anonymous | Education
  • Past 6 Months

    • Why tracking cognitive load could save doctors and patients

      Hiba Fatima Hamid | Education
    • What the world must learn from the life and death of Hind Rajab

      Saba Qaiser, RN | Conditions
    • The silent toll of ICE raids on U.S. patient care

      Carlin Lockwood | Policy
    • My journey from misdiagnosis to living fully with APBD

      Jeff Cooper | Conditions
    • Addressing the physician shortage: How AI can help, not replace

      Amelia Mercado | Tech
    • Why does rifaximin cost 95 percent more in the U.S. than in Asia?

      Jai Kumar, MD, Brian Nohomovich, DO, PhD and Leonid Shamban, DO | Meds
  • Recent Posts

    • How a rainy walk helped an oncologist rediscover joy and bravery

      Dr. Damane Zehra | Physician
    • How inspiration and family stories shape our most meaningful moments

      Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA | Physician
    • A day in the life of a WHO public health professional in Meghalaya, India

      Dr. Poulami Mazumder | Physician
    • Why women doctors are still mistaken for nurses

      Emma Fenske, DO | Physician
    • How home-based AI can reduce health inequities in underserved communities [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Adriana Smith’s story: a medical tragedy under heartbeat laws

      Nicole M. King, MD | Physician

Subscribe to KevinMD and never miss a story!

Get free updates delivered free to your inbox.


Find jobs at
Careers by KevinMD.com

Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now.

Learn more

View 16 Comments >

Founded in 2004 by Kevin Pho, MD, KevinMD.com is the web’s leading platform where physicians, advanced practitioners, nurses, medical students, and patients share their insight and tell their stories.

Social

  • Like on Facebook
  • Follow on Twitter
  • Connect on Linkedin
  • Subscribe on Youtube
  • Instagram

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

  • Most Popular

  • Past Week

    • Why removing fluoride from water is a public health disaster

      Steven J. Katz, DDS | Conditions
    • When did we start treating our lives like trauma?

      Maureen Gibbons, MD | Physician
    • Why male fertility needs to be part of every health conversation

      Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian | Conditions
    • How a rainy walk helped an oncologist rediscover joy and bravery

      Dr. Damane Zehra | Physician
    • Inside human trafficking: a guide to recognizing and preventing it [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Graduating from medical school without family: a story of strength and survival

      Anonymous | Education
  • Past 6 Months

    • Why tracking cognitive load could save doctors and patients

      Hiba Fatima Hamid | Education
    • What the world must learn from the life and death of Hind Rajab

      Saba Qaiser, RN | Conditions
    • The silent toll of ICE raids on U.S. patient care

      Carlin Lockwood | Policy
    • My journey from misdiagnosis to living fully with APBD

      Jeff Cooper | Conditions
    • Addressing the physician shortage: How AI can help, not replace

      Amelia Mercado | Tech
    • Why does rifaximin cost 95 percent more in the U.S. than in Asia?

      Jai Kumar, MD, Brian Nohomovich, DO, PhD and Leonid Shamban, DO | Meds
  • Recent Posts

    • How a rainy walk helped an oncologist rediscover joy and bravery

      Dr. Damane Zehra | Physician
    • How inspiration and family stories shape our most meaningful moments

      Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA | Physician
    • A day in the life of a WHO public health professional in Meghalaya, India

      Dr. Poulami Mazumder | Physician
    • Why women doctors are still mistaken for nurses

      Emma Fenske, DO | Physician
    • How home-based AI can reduce health inequities in underserved communities [PODCAST]

      The Podcast by KevinMD | Podcast
    • Adriana Smith’s story: a medical tragedy under heartbeat laws

      Nicole M. King, MD | Physician

MedPage Today Professional

An Everyday Health Property Medpage Today
  • Terms of Use | Disclaimer
  • Privacy Policy
  • DMCA Policy
All Content © KevinMD, LLC
Site by Outthink Group

Why aren’t more people talking about physician suicide?
16 comments

Comments are moderated before they are published. Please read the comment policy.

Loading Comments...