The Illusion of the Perfect Profession

The Illusion of the Perfect Profession: One wife's story about love, physician suicide, and finding comfort and purpose in the aftermath.

Betsy Gall was living the American dream. Married to an oncologist with three healthy children; life was pretty darn good. That all changed on Thanksgiving Day of 2019 when her "life of the party" physician husband took his own life. Matthew Taylor Gall, M.D., M.S., who had devoted his entire life to saving lives, was dead at the young age of 49. The Illusion of the Perfect Profession is a culmination of Betsy's journals, letters to God, and her journey with faith throughout this horrific traumatic experience that left her family shattered and asking how could this happen. Through reading and research, Betsy discovered that physician suicide is a trend. One million patients lose their doctors to suicide every single year. This is a subject matter that, unfortunately, needs to be widely discussed to help change a system that is undoubtedly broken. This book is one wife's story about love, physician suicide, and finding comfort and purpose in the aftermath.

What people are saying:

Suicide has reached the point where, like knowing someone with cancer, we all know someone who has killed themselves. Anyone and everyone is at risk, and that includes people in the medical profession. The saying, 'doctor heal thyself, ' is easier said than done, and tragically every year, doctors die by suicide at a rate higher than that of the general population. It happened to my family in 2017 when we lost my ex-husband, who was also a cardiothoracic surgeon. It was years later when I met Betsy, and we soon learned how much we had in common. Her drive to help others going through the same experience and to offer hope and healing, courage, and community to others who have lost a loved one to suicide is inspiring. One thing is clear, optics are deceiving, even for doctors.

Dr. Jennifer Ashton, ABC News Chief Medical Correspondent and author of Life After Suicide.