In memory of Prof. Dr. med Walter H. Hitzig: A pioneer of paediatrics and paediatric immunology

Abstract

As an astute clinician, assisted by newly introduced laboratory methods, Walter Hitzig characterised the most severe inherited defect of immunity approximately 50 years ago. This deficiency first became known as “Swiss-type agammaglobulinaemia” and subsequently as “severe combined immunodeficiency” or “SCID”. Thirty years later, his team was able to cure the first Swiss infant from this lethal genetic disease by bone marrow transplantation. In the meantime, in a period of only one generation, a small group of dedicated colleagues from Europe and the USA had developed the field of paediatric immunology into a new discipline. Both the University and the Children’s Hospital (Kinderspital) of Zurich recognised the importance of this emerging specialty as well as the unique qualities of Walter Hitzig and appointed him to the first Chair of Paediatric Immunology in Continental Europe. This nomination rapidly attracted postgraduate physicians and innovative academic guests. Offers of professorships at the University Children’s Hospitals in Boston and Berlin, honourable and tempting as they were, were declined byWalter Hitzig who remained loyal to the Zurich Kinderspital. In Zurich, he continued to elucidate the role of the Haemoglobin Variant “Zurich” and the agammaglobulinemia as part of Transcobalamine II deficiency. When the younger generation remembers Walter Hitzig with high respect, this respect is also indelibly linked to his exemplary medical attitude. He cared for sick children in a holistic and humane way and promoted an intensive exchange between basic sciences and clinical practice to the benefit and well-being of his patients. This attitude was reflected in his legendary and stimulating rounds at Zurich Kinderspital with very fruitful interactions between the younger, specialised generation of paediatric haematologists, immunologists, oncologists, infectiologists, allergologists and rheumatologists, all emerging from his department. Walter Hitzig’s dedication to the comprehensive care of sick children was also reflected in his tireless engagement in the Medical Faculty of Zurich, the Swiss Society of Paediatrics and the Swiss Academy for Medical Sciences in the fields of Medical Ethics, Family Medicine and continuous medical education. Regarding his own patients, Walter Hitzig possessed a drawer full of reports of unsolved patient histories, which gave him no rest. Many of his patients, who had found the way to him only after a long medical odyssey, remained attached as adults and continued to ask for advice in important questions of everyday life. In response, they received personal letters from their fatherly Swiss paediatrician. Prof. Dr. Walter Hitzig, 1989 at a student lecture, in conversation with one of his patients