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Dr. Katarzyna Watson
06/06/2021

 

 

Dr. Katarzyna Watson, age 44, passed away June 6^th, 2021 at Lehigh Valley Hospice in Allentown, PA. Known by friends and family as Kasia, she was born Jan 20, 1977 in Rzeszow, Poland. Second born of four children, but the oldest of three girls, her sisters Lidia and Paula remember her most for her care and attention to their upbringing, and later in life as an avid travel companion. Her father died 8 August 2018. Her mother Krystyna and brother Wojtek live in Poland. Her husband Chad and children Luke, Adam and Eliana live in the United States.

 

In high school she had two key encounters that changed her life forever. First, she inadvertently ate wild mushrooms that turned out to be poisonous. Hospitalized to the point of near death, she watched how her group of doctors used their skills and knowledge to help her recover. The experience made such an impression on her that she decided to study medicine.

 

Second, at a youth event in high school she heard the gospel and gave her life to Jesus Christ. Her choices in faith were not accepted by many and resulted in persecution. She read her bible in secret and spent hours seeking the presence of God.

 

She emerged from high school with a passion for medicine, a love for Jesus, and a resiliency that would carry her through years and years of gruelling training, a new country, a new language, three kids, and finding a husband from Canada.

 

After high school she studied medicine at the Medical University of Silesia in Katowicach. Kasia was not all business.  Mid-way through medical university she took 2 years off to travel to the US, learn English, and discover the north-eastern states. She returned to Poland, finished her medical training in 2006, and packed her bags once again for the US.

 

Kasia landed in New Jersey for an OB/GYN residency at Saint Barnabas Medical Center from 2006 to 2010. Her first son Luke was born in 2007.

 

Despite intense competition, Kasia earned a fellowship in Maternal Fetal Medicine at St. Luke's-Rosevelt Hospital Center from 2010 to 2013. Her second son Adam was born in 2011.

 

In 2013 at age 38 she got her first job at North Shore Medical Center as a Maternal Fetal Medicine Specialist. She practiced there until June of 2017. Midway 2015 she met her husband Chad, and they married a year later in 2016 at her favorite travel destination - Hawaii.

 

In 2017 a fantastic employment opportunity opened for her at Lehigh Valley Health Network in Allentown, PA. Together with her husband they moved from Long Island, NY to Center Valley, PA where she bought her first house. Her daughter Eliana was born in December of 2017.

 

Kasia lived, studied, and worked with ferocity. Making new friends, new memories, and new dreams for the future. Despite the diagnosis on Jun 25, 2020 - she defiantly proclaimed that Jesus healed her 2000 years ago on the cross, was healing her, and would continue to heal her. She proclaimed her love for, and trust in, Jesus Christ to her last words. In the early morning of Jun 6th, with her hand in Chad's, she let go of us and went to Jesus.

 

Her husband Chad, her children Luke, Adam, Eliana, her immediate family, her covenant family, and her work family celebrate the life of Kasia and the blessings that her faith and work brought to all our lives.

 

"So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen, but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." (2 Cor 4:16-18 ESV).

 

As a faith-filled, high-risk pregnancy doctor, Kasia supported a Show Mercy International birthing center in Uganda. Donations in Kasia's memory may be made at

www.showmercy.org/kasia

 

 

 

The Celebration of Life will be held on Saturday, July 17^th at 11:00 a.m. at Cedar Crest Bible Fellowship Church, 1151 S. Cedar Crest Blvd, Allentown, PA 18103. Visitation at 10:00 a.m. For those that cannot attend in person, the celebration will be livestreamed https://youtu.be/TEzuKSjOA1M.