I'm a child and adolescent psychiatrist. Let me share a story with you.
I had a 17-year-old adolescent whom I cared for back in 2018. Her mother had died when she was seven. For the next three years she was sexually assaulted repeatedly by a family member. Between the ages of 10 and 12 she immigrated to Canada. In Canada, after a handful of years, at the age of 15 she was kicked out by her father. She lived independently, went to school full-time, and worked in fast food for pretty much 40 hours a week.
I met her in the emergency department. She was suicidal. I admitted her to hospital. I was the first person that she shared the sexual abuse with. After sharing that with me, she fell apart. She had full-blown PTSD and depression. I sat with that child, day in and day out, with her sobbing, asking, “Dr. Ehmann, let me die. Let me go home. I want to die.” It was the worst psychological suffering I've ever witnessed. It affected me profoundly, personally. She spent six months on our in-patient unit, in and out.
I can tell you, I wondered about that question of what is the right thing to do. At the end of the day, however, when they are faced with their patients who are suffering from a medical condition, a mental health condition or from life circumstances, the physician's rule is always to protect and preserve life—and I am committed to that.
I don't know how she's doing now. I know that she made it through those hospitalizations and recovered, in part because of the service that we provided in the hospital. Because she was there for six months, my colleagues were all involved with it as well.
