It was a calm Friday morning on a suburban Chicago street, when a woman’s piercing scream split the air, followed by two gunshots.
Neighbors in Elmhurst, Ill., rushed to call the police, and when officials arrived on the scene they found a woman holding a towel to her bleeding head, and Hani Hennein, a University of Wisconsin pediatric heart surgeon, lying in a pool of blood on the floor of the garage, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Hennein and his wife Julia had been estranged for some time and in the middle of a messy divorce, one which Hennein had been adamantly opposed to. Hennein’s son told police his mother and one of his sisters had taken out a restraining order against his father, and that there was a history of domestic violence in their marriage.
According to Hennein’s sister, Hennein had been living in a condominium in Madison after being kicked out of his wife’s house, depressed and upset about the impending divorce.
Throughout the abuse, restraining order and impending divorce, Hennein had also been working as a professor of cardiothoracic surgery at the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. He was hired last August, according to a statement from UW Health leadership.
The story begs an obvious question: Was a man like Hennein — someone undergoing severe personal and emotional stress — fit to be employed in such a high-stress position, one in which he was responsible for the well-being of others?
School of Medicine Associate Dean Elizabeth Bolt said it is not a question of personal stress that the hospital looks at when making employment decisions, but professional conduct and work record.
Bolt declined to comment on the specifics of Hennein’s case; however she did say that as long as an employee’s personal life does not affect their work performance, it would be inappropriate for the hospital to take personal issues into account when making choices regarding that person’s employment.
“I think most employees would be concerned if they thought employers were making decisions about their jobs because of something in their personal life,” Bolt said.
The screening process Hennein went through is similar to the processes of most medical colleges: A series of interviews, background checks and credentialing procedures meant to ensure a candidate’s eligibility to practice medicine.
None of these screening procedures include testing for psychological or mental health issues. UW Hospital employees are also not required to undergo any mental health screenings during their employment.
Bolt said the School of Medicine works hard during the process to strike a balance between prospective employees’ rights to privacy versus employers’ right to know their personal and professional backgrounds; however she admitted it can be a fine line sometimes.
“There are things that happen in people’s lives and we’re all human, and that’s something difficult for an employer to control,” Bolt said. “Certainly we recognize that medicine in general is pretty high stress profession”
Bolt cited UW’s Employee Assistance Office as one resource faculty and staff may turn to when undergoing personal or professional stress.
Stephen Pearson, director of the EAO, said his office deals with UW employees who are going through a variety of problems, including mental health issues, financial problems, substance abuse and general work-related issues. Participation with the EAO is voluntary, and the university cannot force an employee to contact them.
The purpose of the EAO, Pearson said, is based around the fact that if an employee is having a very difficult time in their personal life, sooner or later it is going to spill over into the workplace.
Pearson could not comment on whether Hennein had ever been in contact with his office, though he added he would be surprised if no one Hennein had worked with had noticed he had been having very severe personal problems.
“If somebody is going through a messy divorce…it’s the rare situation…that somebody coming into the workplace is going to always look good, sound good, and that you’d say, ‘gee I never would have guessed that,'” Pearson said. “The question is: What do you do about that?”
Pearson said his office has strict confidentiality rules when it comes to dealing with UW faculty and staff, however under certain circumstances like suspicious death, neglect or abuse or threats of harm from an employee, he would be obligated to break that confidentiality.
Pearson agreed with Bolt that as long as personal issues do not interfere with the ability to get work done, then an employer cannot really do anything, even if they have legitimate concerns about an employee’s personal life.
“It seems like the higher one’s status is, the more likely they are not to get confronted with their need for help…their behaviors get tolerated,” Pearson said. “There are folks who are a bit eccentric, so when does the line get crossed between being eccentric and getting some help, and who makes that call?”
Bolt said the School of Medicine’s guidelines fall in line with the hiring practices at most medical colleges, and as to her knowledge, is not aware of psychological or mental health screenings ever taking place at the university.
