A Minnesota family physician is advocating for change in the profession after her radiologist sibling’s recent death by suicide.
Gretchen Butler, MD, a 36-year-old mother of three, died on March 5. Older sister Michelle Chestovich, MD, said recently that Butler had been diagnosed with post-partum anxiety, and her role as a radiologist likely added further pressure.
“We deal with death every day. We deal with telling people bad news every day," Chestovich told KARE 11, NBC’s Minneapolis affiliate, in an interview posted Friday, July 16. “If there's not a way to process that, it just kind of burns within and it’s not good for your mental health.”
The TV news report pointed to one 2018 literature review, which estimated upward of 40 physicians per 100,000 die by suicide, a rate more than double the general population. At roughly 300-400 deaths annually, the U.S. is losing “nearly two full med school classes every year to suicide," she said.
Chestovich, who has two other physician siblings, is advocating for limits on how many hours radiologists and other doctors can work each shift. She also wants routine mental health checks on those working in the medical profession.
“I was yelling it from the rooftops before," Chestovich said. "Now I'm like, give me the bullhorn. Who needs to hear this? Everybody needs to hear this.”
John Benson, MD, a former classmate, also wrote about Butler’s passing earlier this year in Clinical Imaging, calling burnout a major contributor to her death, while urging others to heed the signs of burnout among colleagues.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.