Krystyna Knypl (maiden name Łapińska)
was born in Podlasie in a noble family sealing with the coat of arms
Jelita, granted to her great-great-grandfather Wincenty Anastazy
Łapiński in 1765 by the Heraldya Królewstwa Polskiego.
The roots on her mother's side, Halina
Hublewska, lead to Ksawery Konopacki, considered the founder of
Warsaw's Nowa Praga district. He was head of the section of the Mining
Department at the Government Commission of Revenue and Treasury in
Warsaw.
Note that the route of the Warsaw-Petersburg Railway passes through Krystyna's hometown of Łapy! What symbolism!
In the photograph, taken at Wladyslaw Piotrowski's famous photo salon ( https://wirtualnelapy.dklapy.pl/galeria), we see an elegant woman with big eyes and bright wavy curls.
Another photograph from Krystyna's
childhood (taken in Wysokie Mazowieckie, where Krystyna's parents worked
at the local high school. Father was the school's principal and Mother
was the Polish language teacher https://jagiellonczyk.org.pl/2021/03/10/historia-lo/) shows that she looks just as interesting in formal attire for photography as she does in work attire for the sandbox.
What's more, she has a knack for being
a so-called front woman! Her early mastery of this skill came in handy
years later when Krystyna became editor-in-chief of the Gazeta dla
Lekarzy. It is well known that the Devil dresses at Prada and all editors-in-chief are elegant that ho! ho!
In
1948, her parents moved to Warsaw, where Mother took the position of
head of the student dormitory "Dziekanka" at Krakowskie Przedmieście.
Her father worked as an accountant for
a higher public utility association called the "Society of Bursaries
and Scholarships." Halina's mother, inspired by conversations with
students living in Dziekanka, began attending classes at the University
of Warsaw, initially as a free listener to lectures by such prominent
professors as Witold Doroszewski (https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witold_Doroszewski) and Artur Sandauer (https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artur_Sandauer).
After passing two exams, she was admitted to the Polish Studies
Department and, upon graduation, received her master's degree based on
her thesis on the works of Alexander Fredro.
After graduation, Halina worked as an
editor at the State Medical Publishing House on Dluga Street. Krystyna,
while visiting her mother at the publishing house, had the opportunity
to meet future luminaries of medicine, such as Bogdan Kaminski, Artur
Dziak ( https://www.gazeta-dla-lekarzy.com/index.php/medycyna-oparta-na-wspomnieniach/890-nie-lataj-za-wysoko-bo-cie-nie-zauwaza), who also worked at the State Medical Publishing House.
Stories about other authors, prominent professors of medicine such as
Eleonora Reicher (founder of Polish rheumatology), Antoni Horst,
physiologist ( https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoni_Horst), Alicja Blaim, pediatrician-endocrinologist ( https://endokrynologiapediatria.wum.edu.pl/content/historia-kliniki-pediatrii-i-endokrynologii) as well as copies of famous medical books edited by Mother, such as Wladyslaw Szumowski's History of Medicine, present in the house, undoubtedly influenced Krystyna's choice of medical studies.
During the vacations, she returned
eagerly to her hometown, taking advantage of the invitation of Aunt
Frania, a pious person of great heart and nobility, as well as an animal
lover. Aunt Frania also had a talent for mathematics, which was enjoyed
by all the local children. As Henia, a childhood friend, recalled years
later - there was no mathematical equation that Auntie could not solve.
Auntie always had a horse, cows, sheep
and a cat on her farm. One of them was known to walk Auntie to church
for morning mass. After escorting Auntie, he would return home, sit on
a high fence post and so wait for her to return from church.
Chasing the cows from the barn to the
pasture in the morning and returning in the evening were ceremonies
permanently inscribed in local customs, and participating in them was
a favorite activity of her Daughter Kate, who spent many of her summers
in her mother's hometown.
The sheep, which initially grazed with
the cows in the meadows along the Narew River, over time plucked grass
in the home garden.
School education and higher education
Krystyna is a graduate of T. Czacki
High School No. 27, which in her school days was located on Karowa
Street in Warsaw. After passing her matriculation exam, she studied at
the medical faculty of the Medical Academy in Warsaw from 1962 to 1968.
After her fifth year, she was the winner of a competition for an
exemplary student. During her studies, she listened to lectures by
distinguished professors with noble lives. These included surgeon Prof.
Zdzisław Łapinski (https://www.gazeta-dla-lekarzy.com/index.php/medycyna-oparta-na-wspomnieniach/1244-medycyna-oparta-na-wspomnieniach),
a Warsaw insurgent and participant in the Polish Medical Mission to
Ham-Hyn in North Korea (1955), and internist Prof. Marek Sznajderman (https://www.gazeta-dla-lekarzy.com/index.php/medycyna-oparta-na-wspomnieniach/1069-wspominajac-prof-marka-sznajdermana-1929-2020),
under whom she passed her diploma exam in internal medicine and did her
postgraduate internship. Years later, she found documents from which
she learned that he was, along with her Father, a prisoner of the German
concentration camp Sachsenhausen.
Work as a medical doctor
She began her work as a physician in April 1968 at the State Clinical Hospital No. 1 in Warsaw at 59 Nowogrodzka Street.
After completing her postgraduate
internship, she continued her work as a doctoral student, graduating in
1974 with a doctorate in medical sciences on the basis of her thesis
"Application of ultrasonocardiography to assess the functional state of
the myocardium." She is a specialist in second-degree internal medicine
and a specialist in hypertensiology. In 2001, she received the title of
specialist of the European Society of Hypertension in recognition of her
achievements in the field of hypertensiology.
In
addition to her medical work at the hospital, she taught internal
medicine in Russian with students coming from Yerevan for summer
internships. In addition, thanks to her knowledge of the Russian
language, she was invited in 1975 to give a lecture on "The use of beta
adrenergic receptor blocking drugs in the treatment of cardiovascular
diseases" at Novosibirsk State University in the famous Akademgorodok
academic town during the Polish Medicine Week.
She deepened the art of medicine under the guidance of Prof. Jack Preibisz (https://www.gazeta-dla-lekarzy.com/index.php/medycyna-oparta-na-wspomnieniach/968-lekarski-szlak-dr-hab-n-med-jacka-j-preibisza
). On the other hand, under the guidance of Prof. Jolanta Chodakowska,
she learned the principles of reliable clinical research ( https://www.gazeta-dla-lekarzy.com/index.php/medycyna-oparta-na-wspomnieniach/931-wspominajac-prof-dr-hab-n-med-jolante-chodakowska
She
deepened her knowledge of echocardiography at a seminar in London
(1979), during which she had the opportunity to observe the pioneering
examination of the pulmonary artery valve by Prof. Arthur E. Weyman.
Since 1982, she has worked at the
Hypertension Clinic of the State Clinical Hospital No. 1 in Warsaw, 59
Nowogrodzka Street, combining medical practice with scientific and
didactic work. Under her guidance, three young doctors completed
scientific papers on hypertension, which were presented by them at the
congresses of the European Society of Hypertension in Milan and Paris.
Christine presented three scientific reports at the Interamerican
Society of Hypertension congress in Sao Paulo in 2004.
She summed up her her MD path in the book "The Golden Diploma of Physician."
https://www.gazeta-dla-lekarzy.com/images/ksiazki/Krystyna%20Knypl%20Zloty%20dyplom%20lekarza-WWW.pdf
Working as a journalist
Since 2000, Krystyna continued her
medical practice in Warsaw's private medical clinics. The new work
formula allowed her to become more intensively involved in journalistic
and literary work. In 2003, she published her debut novel, "Tiger
Ointment or the Vocation of Medicine." Readers received the book very
favorably, which encouraged Christine to continue her literary
activities.
However, she was more attracted to
writing columns, articles, poems and books than to writing prescriptions
for hypotensive drugs. From 2006 to 2012 she was a columnist for
"Gazeta Lekarska" published by the Supreme Medical Chamber. In the pages
of this magazine, she created the timelessly famous "Decipher
a prescription" column, in which she showed examples of medical
hieroglyphics, and readers submitted decipherments.
One of the puzzles from the "Decipher the Recipe" column. Since 2014, it has been working with the high-circulation color press.
In 2012, she took on the publication
of the monthly Gazeta dla Lekarzy, a nonprofit magazine created by
doctors and their families. The co-founder of Gazeta dla Lekarzy is her
Husband Mieczyslaw Knypl (1949-2021), in whose memory she wrote the book
"I dance the tango, a love novel".
She is the author of the SF novel
"Diagnosis: Gold Rush," written in 2011/2013, which features the Brave
New World, Augmented Reality, the Muti Vir-Vir vaccine, which is
administered in vaccine-buses...Not only that, the vaccine causes some
side effects, which the Party of the Rich... She summed up her journalistic part of her career path in the book "Journalistic Duck" ( https://www.gazeta-dla-lekarzy.com/images/gdl_2020/KACZKA%20dziennikarska.pdf )
With particular dedication, Krystyna
promotes healthy lifestyles and a salt-reduced diet. In recognition of
her contributions in this field, she received the 2014 World League
Award for Notable Achievements In Dietary Salt Reduction at the
Population Level.
Krystyna has traveled throughout
Europe and North Africa. The real challenge was a trip she made to
Brazil to present three scientific reports at the Interamerican Society
of Hypertension congress in São Paulo. The realization of the trip was
made possible by the receipt of a travel research grant.
She also traveled to Argentina for the
World Congress of Cardiology in Buenos Aires, and at the conclusion of
the proceedings, she made a self-prepared solo trip to Iguazu Falls.
Similarly, she traveled to Australia
on her own for the Transplant Congress. She has visited the United
States several times in connection with journalistic accreditations to
the congresses of the American Society of Hypertension, the American
Society of Cardiology, the American Heart Association, and the American
Society of Clinical Oncology.
I
have repeatedly received journalistic accreditations from The
Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency at the European
Commission for health conferences held in Brussels, Madrid and Athens.
She has also been accredited by national institutions such as the Sejm
and the Senate of Poland, the Presidential Palace and the Polish Academy
of Sciences. She has given about 30 interviews to radio, television
stations and the press.
An interesting form and at the same
time a serious challenge for a journalist is an interview in a foreign
language. According to Krystyna, the final text is the result of the
thoughts of the person giving the interview and the words used by the
journalist to translate what was recorded on the electronic medium. She
has had the opportunity to prove herself in this regard by interviewing
Prof. Philipp Kotler, the marketing guru, and Prof. Louis Ignarro, the
Nobel Prize winner in physiology and medicine.
With Prof. L. Ignarro during an interview
Another kind of journalistic adventure
turned out to be an invitation to write columns in English on the
largest portal for doctors www.sermo.com. Since 2016, Krystyna has been
writing columns as a "Sermo community columnist" for the online
community of doctors, comprising 800,000 people from 150 countries. Her
column "Is a woman of a certain age, still interested in sex?" was
published by the WHO / UN portal "Decade of a healthy aging"
https://www.decadeofhealthyageing.org/find-knowledge/voices/feature-stories/detail/is-a-woman-of-a-certain-age-still-interested-in-sex
And last but not least, she is the author of dozens of poems, a volume of which will soon be published.
Krystyna is interested in photography and she is the author of the photoblog Modne Diagnozy (http://modnediagnozy.blogspot.com/).
The heroes of her daily life are her
daughter Kate, son-in-law Maciej and grandchildren Helenka and Heniek.
For them she wrote a family trilogy "Mosaic of Memories" consists of
volumes: "It Started in Zakopane," "All Kids Have a Drawer" and "In the
Rhythm of La Paloma."She collects editions of The Little Prince in various languages.
Krystyna
is a member of the Polish Society of Cardiology (since 1977), the
European Society of Cardiology (since 1977) and the Association of
Polish Journalists (since 2004).
Krystyna Knypl
