Ramit Kumar Sharma, MD, affectionately known to his family and friends as Ruby, passed away on July 24, 2024 after a sudden and unexpected cardiac crisis from which he couldn’t recover. As a beloved physician, he cared for patients all around the world and poured every ounce of himself into their care. Just the same, his last day saw his friends and colleagues rush to his aid and do everything possible to save him. They exhausted every effort and tried every intervention and Ruby fought his hardest to the last, not going gentle into that good night. In the end, his family decided that they would do no less for him than what he had helped thousands of families and patients do his entire career in these excruciating moments and let him go with dignity in death. He was a titan among men and the very best of us - we are unmoored without him.
Ruby was born on January 30, 1955 in Hoshiarpur, India to Ram Prakash and Kailash Wati Sharma and this place remained the anchor point of his heart. The youngest of three kids, his relationship with his two older sisters, Kiran and Vijaya, was a life-long love affair that is the stuff of novels. They spoke to each other every single day, rain or shine, and lived in these cosmically entwined orbits around each other their entire lives. He married the love of his life, Fluorine in 1995, and to say that she was the brightest star in his life is an understatement. He loved her and she loved him in a way that was transformative to witness. Her attention to his care was her vocation and her devotion to his well-being her guiding light. He loved his kids, Shilpi and Abhishek, and told stories of their lives with pride to anyone who would listen. Shilpi has his strength and Abhishek is heart and he instilled in them his ethos of the world: to be true to your values no matter what, to care for the people you love beyond measure, and to make the world a better place because you owe that to this life and the next.
His friendships are that of lore - to know him was to be charmed by him and he invested in his relationships with an intentionality that was awe-inspiring. His lifelong friend, Amrit Mittal, was a brother to him and the keystone friendship of his life. Alongside this, the entire city of Hoshiarpur, and its diaspora beyond, are friendships he cherished every day. Ruby’s favorite thing to do was to call a friend as he sipped his morning or afternoon tea and catch up on things both big and small. If you needed him for care, he was there; if you needed financial support, he was there; if you needed advice, he was there; if you needed to simply smile at the small joys in life, he was there. He made people feel seen and when you talked to him, you felt you were the most important person in the world to him. He never complained and he always had a smile, and whether you were down the street from him or a million miles away, he was invested in you and he remembered everything about you.
Ruby always said that his medical scrubs were his formal-wear and his suits were his casual dress and that highlights his real calling in life - his love for his patients. He gave his personal cell phone to his patients and fielded calls in the middle of the night. If his patient ended up in the ICU, he would go and see them even if he wasn’t the doctor on call because they are were his charge. He spent hours with his patients and they trusted his word like gospel. His love of medicine was pure and the fact that he got to earn a living doing it simply incidental. An avid history buff, he was an inexhaustible treasure trove of WWII history and he could discuss philosophy with you for hours. He had an inviting and disarming presence that established instant trust and his entire life, people vied for his attention. A collector of Montblanc pens, a lover of watches, a connoisseur of a great cashmere sweater, Ruby had a joie de vivre that was inimitable. But the simple pleasures he loved the most were a cup of tea and conversation with friends.
For the greatest care provided to him, we are indebted to his doctors and caretakers. He is survived by his wife, his kids, his sisters, his niece and nephews, his beloved family at large, his adored friends all around the world, his colleagues and coworkers, his caring clinic staff, and most of all by his treasured patients everywhere. We are shattered by this loss but resolute in the impact he had on thousands of people around the world. The greatest luck we have had in this life is that he was ours and we were his. Until we meet again…
A Celebration of life for Ramit will be held Sunday, July 28, 2024 from 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM at Shadow Mountain Mortuary, 2350 East Greenway Road, Phoenix, AZ 85022
COMPARTA UN OBITUARIO
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