Vetmeduni Vienna trauert um Lidia Kowalczyk

Dear community of veterinary anesthesiologists,

it is with great sadness that we have to inform you of the recent passing of our dear friend and colleague, Dr. Lidia Kowalczyk. We want to honour her memory with a couple of words about her.

Lidia graduated from the Veterinary University of Wroclaw in 2008 as top of her class. After graduation she went to Munich, where she had the opportunity to write her doctoral thesis about the equine iliosacral joint under the supervision of Prof. Gerhards. She was only in her late 20’s when she received her first diagnosis of breast cancer. However, this did not stop her from further pursuing her dream of becoming an equine specialist and she successfully completed an equine internship at the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna while continuously receiving cancer treatment. During this internship she developed a strong interest for anaesthesia and was actively recruited into the residency program of the Vetmeduni Vienna. Throughout the residency she continued to be an excellent team player with a high working attitude. She shared her passion and knowledge, as well as her humor, deep understanding for life and the things that really matter with students, interns and her colleagues.

She was especially interested in the pathophysiology of equine V/Q mismatch and the ventilator strategies used to treat it, which she could discuss for hours with her mentors Prof. Yves Moens and Dr. Stefan Böhm. She early recognized the importance of balancing the disciplined efforts at work and loved travelling and hiking in the mountains in her free time. She always had an open ear and door, as well as a bed on her couch, for Polish students visiting Vienna. After successfully completing the residency in 2013 she sat the exam once before she received her final diagnosis of metastatic breast cancer.

Despite being fatally sick herself, she continued to put friends and even strangers first. One example is her helping cancer patients from Poland seeking to undergo treatment in Vienna, where she arranged doctor’s appointments, volunteered as a translator, and had a constant open door in her little apartment in Vienna, jokingly referred to by her friends as “Hotel Lidia”.

Her medical understanding helped her to navigate through the challenges of her disease and even led her to publishing a case report and a review article about the side effects she herself experienced during her own cancer treatment.

We believe she outlived all statistics and her stubbornness that could drive so many people crazy at times, combined with her strong will to live, have helped her to hold up against all odds for 6.5 years. During those many years of living with cancer she rarely complained and she developed a deep understanding on the important values of life.

She was one of the most selfless, kind and inspiring persons we have ever known and her friends and family will forever be grateful for the gifts of strength, optimism and calmness she shared with them.

 

ACHTUNG:
Die  aktuelle Situation veranlasst uns, auch die Teilnehmer bei Begränissen nun auf max. 5 Personen zu beschränken.
ES DÜRFEN NICHT MEHR SEIN!!
Somit darf die Beisetzung nur im engsten Familienkreis stattfinden.

 

Bitte halten Sie von Kränzen und Blumenspenden Abstand. Eine Spendenbox befindet sich im Sekretariat Anästhesie. Wir unterstützen die Familie mit den Begräbniskosten. 

Das Anästhesieteam