Dr. Shamshad Haroon, an eminent child psychiatrist who practiced in Arkansas, has passed away after a brave fight against cancer.
She was a leading expert in the field of teen and child psychiatry and a recipient of the Best Foreign Doctor award. Haroon was also a media personality and contributed reports to some of the top organizations.
Dr. Haroon founded a non-profit Wise Outstanding Wizards in Hot Springs, Akransas. The initiative seeks to inspire young people to achieve a fine balance as citizens who value both humans and the planet earth.
Views and News interviewed her about the challenges facing young people in a world beset with crises and conflicts. She also contributed blogs to Views and News on health and diet.
“Teens’ energies are remarkable we don’t know how to channelize them,” Dr. Haroon said, when I interviewed her.
“If you don’t channelize —- teen energies are like ocean energies– so when you look at a river, you put a dam for the river to actually fertilize the land – if you don’t then they can flood it – everything has duality – it is like fire – you use the fire, otherwise it become a forest fire.”
After moving from Karachi to the United States, she actively took part in social and humanitarian work and worked with BBC and CNN.
We discussed plans to do a show for an American TV channel to highlight the contributions of immigrants and diverse communities.
She had always had kind words for my work and praised the quality of Views and News work, when I launched the magazine as a platform to advance discourse between cultures as Dr. Haroon remained an advocate for mutual understanding and fusion between communities.
But it was her courageous fight against the fatal disease that inspired many of her friends and followers.
I remember her telling me enthusiastically that she was confident that her cancer had gone. But later it came back, and she fought it again. She continued to battle the disease in the last couple of years. But this week cancer damaged her liver and after a brief hospitalization she breathed her last.
When producer Aziz Ahmed, who is now working for Voice of America, and was affiliated with Views and News, when I interviewed Dr Haroon a couple of years ago, told me of her passing away on Monday, I said a chapter of human dynamism had come to an end.
Dr Haroon would often remember her father, Dr. Haroon, an illustrious physician, who believed in service to humanity without any publicity and said she was following in his footsteps.
She was aware that time had come for her to fly from this planet and wrote a Facebook post, saying farewell to her friends.
“I am in Heaven with My ultimate Beloved God. Looking down on planet Earth. Leaving Human form was freeing. I did the Best I could on my trip to Planet Earth. Good Luck to U all
On rest of your journey. Remember not to get attach n glued to temporary stuff,” she wrote in one of her last posts.
Inna lillah aye wa inna illah aye rajaoon…