Dr. Nakita Mortimer had advocated for better working conditions for medical residents.
Dr. Nakita Mortimer was always a leader. The first of four children to move to the U.S. from Haiti for college in 2012, she was a guiding light for each sibling as they followed her.
In her medical residency in anesthesiology at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx, she helped organize a union for residents. She wanted relief from the punishing hours and pressure that challenge even the high achievers who become young doctors.
“The fact that the medical profession has one of the highest rates of burnout and suicide, compared to other professions, speaks to the urgent need for change,” Mortimer told The City, a local news site, in November 2022.
Months later, she died by suicide. Her death was a reckoning for her peers as many young doctors are pushing for more mental-health support and improvements to their working conditions.