BRIEF REPORT Accomplishments of Heinz Baumberger PhD: a remarkable patient with ankylosing spondylitis for 72 years Muhammad A. Khan 1 Received: 30 December 2015 /Accepted: 5 January 2016 # International League of Associations for Rheumatology (ILAR) 2016 Abstract This is the story of a remarkable Swiss patient— Heinz Baumberger, PhD—who was born in 1931 and has suf- fered from ankylosing spondylitis (AS) since 1943. He has sur- vived many manifestations and co-morbid conditions associated with his disease and its treatment. These include severe episodes of acute anterior uveitis, osteoporosis with fragility fractures, and also post-traumatic spinal fractures on three different occa- sions. In addition, he has suffered from multiple basal cell car- cinomas as a late complication of a 3-week course of spinal radiation in 1952 and another one in 1962. It was only in 1971 that Dr. Baumberger for the first time met a fellow sufferer from AS, and he subsequently helped establish the Swiss AS patient support group, the second such national group in the world. He co-authored with his rheumatologist an excellent and well-illustrated book on AS for patients and their family members and for allied healthcare professionals. He travelled extensively around the globe lecturing and participating in var- ious meetings and congresses in his zeal to spread the idea of self-help organizations for patients with AS. Keywords Ankylosing spondylitis . Axial spondyloarthritis . Bamboo spine . Basal cell carcinoma . Fibroepithelioma Pinkus . HLA-B27 . Juvenile onset . Morbus Bechterew . Osteoporosis . Schweizerische Vereinigung Morbus Bechterew . Spinal fractures . Spinal irradiation . Spondyloarthropathies . SVMB . Uveitis This is the story of a remarkable Swiss patient—Heinz Baumberger, PhD—who was born on December 30, 1931 and has suffered from ankylosing spondylitis (AS) since age 12, a disease that is more commonly known as Morbus Bechterew in German-speaking countries. His clinical history and his accom- plishments against all odds are very instructive and educational not only for patients and their families but also for rheumatolo- gists and other individuals interested in AS. He has faced many manifestations and co-morbid conditions associated with his disease and its treatment. These include severe episodes of acute anterior uveitis, osteoporosis with fragility fractures, and also post-traumatic spinal fractures on three different occasions. In addition, he has suffered from multiple basal cell carcinomas on his back as a late complication of two 3-week courses of spinal radiation, one in 1952 and the other in 1962. His symptoms began in 1943 when he was 12 years old, and by the time he reached high school, he had already developed impairment of his spinal mobility so that he was unable to join in his school gymnastics or play with his friends or do skiing. He recalls a dreadful experience in 1948 at age 17 when he was subjected to a 3-week course of physical therapy at a rheuma- tism spa center. His disease was finally diagnosed in December 1951 at age 20 by a rheumatologist and was subsequently treat- ed with a 3-week course of spinal radiation, the only treatment available those days that used to provide some benefit for this disease. He was by that time working as a teacher at a grammar school, and was called up for military training service but was not accepted because of his AS. Not to do military service was a serious handicap in Switzerland in those days, especially when applying for a job. Moreover, he had to pay a higher premium for life insurance, and his health insurance wrote in a proviso restricting the benefits payable because of his AS. In addition, he was not accepted for the “staff provident fund,” which meant that in the event of sickness or accident, he and his parents were left without protection, security, or income. * Muhammad A. Khan mkhan@metrohealth.org 1 Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA Clin Rheumatol DOI 10.1007/s10067-016-3259-0