An off-duty FDNY EMT took his own life on Long Island this week, marking at least the third EMT in the city to die by suicide this year during the coronavirus pandemic.
EMT Brandon Dorsa, 36, died on Wednesday, after serving the city at the department for nearly six years, officials confirmed.
“The Department mourns the loss of EMT Brandon Dorsa, appointed on October 6, 2014 and assigned to EMS Dispatch Operations,” the FDNY said in a statement.
Dorsa had suffered severe psychological and physical injuries when an SUV rammed his ambulance in Brooklyn in 2015, according to news accounts of the resulting lawsuit, from which he won an $11.5 million settlement.
In April, new EMT John Mondello, 23, fatally shot himself in Astoria; in June, Lt. Matthew Keene, 38, fatally shot himself in Nyack.
Oren Barzilay, the president of the FDNY EMS Local 2507, the union representing the department’s emergency medical service workers, said the union has been pushing for years for increased support for workplace trauma — especially after the pandemic hit the city.
“We are saddened to hear that another FDNY EMT has taken his life,” Barzilay said in a statement. “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,” Barzilay said, adding, “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.”
The city’s suicide prevention hotline number is 1-888-NYC-WELL (1-888-692-9355).