Society & Culture
Dr. Jennifer Ashton, the chief medical correspondent for ABC News and a prominent physician with a private practice, has made a career of explaining difficult medical issues to her patients and viewers. Now, she has written a book about a trauma in her own life and the lives of 47,000 other families who lose a loved one to suicide each year. The book is called Life After Suicide: Finding Courage, Comfort and Community after Unthinkable Loss.Dr. Ashton wrote the book after her ex-husband, Robert, a 52-year-old thoracic surgeon, jumped to his death from the George Washington Bridge in 2017. Dr. Ashton talks with Tina about how she and her children are working to move forward in their lives, the proper way for journalists to report on these kinds of deaths, and why we all need to get comfortable with the discomfort of talking about suicide.