In memoriam Professor Maria Józefa Harazda (17.11.1920 – 17.07.2015)

It is with deep sadness that I inform you that Maria Józefa Harazda, a wonderful colleague and physician, passed away on 17 July 2015.
She was born in Lviv on 17 November 1920, and studied medicine at the Medical Academy in Cracow in 1945-1951. Already during her studies, she took up the position of assistant in the Department of Pathological Anatomy headed by Prof. Maria Kowalczyk.
Maria Harazda’s strong character and her non-conformist attitude towards the political reality in Poland in the early 1950s meant that she was unable to continue her promising research career. After leaving the university, she worked as a prosector at the Provincial Hospital in Opole. Upon the encouragement of the renowned thoracic surgeon Prof. Maciej Wit Rzepecki, she transferred to the Odrodzenie Sanatorium in Zakopane (currently O. Sokołowski Specialist Hospital for Pulmonary Diseases) in 1954. There, practically from scratch, she organized a pathology laboratory. Modern by the standards of the day, it was Poland’s first facility specializing comprehensively in the pathology of the respiratory system. In the 1960s, Maria Harazda completed an internship at a large pulmonology and thoracic surgery centre in Wales. She authored or co-authored about a dozen research papers on the pathology of the lungs and thymus which were published in Polish and international scientific journals. Her professional and scientific commitment contributed significantly to the high reputation enjoyed by the thoracic surgery centre in Zakopane both across Poland and abroad.
In addition to being involved in pathomorphological diagnostics, Maria Harazda worked as a clinician in the pulmonology unit of her hospital for many years.
Thanks to her extensive knowledge, honesty, professional integrity and strong personality, for nearly 60 years she was an authority for several generations of physicians working at the hospital in Zakopane: she continued her diagnostic work even after retiring in 2005, until she was 91 years old.
Her stern glance, her big heart for those in need and her excellent sense of humour will be sorely missed by all.

Juliusz Pankowski
and associates from the Specialist Hospital for Pulmonary Diseases in Zakopane

Publications

1. Harazda M. [Pathology of tuberculoma and round encapsulated tuberculous foci of the lung]. Gruzlica 1956; 24: 827-832. [Polish]
2. Harazda M, Rudnik I. [Pulmonary abscess caused by...


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