Every year when we, the Pompe community, commemorate Pompe day, I am reminded of the unfortunate fate of the man who discovered the disease which bears his name now: Joannes Cassianus Pompe.
I consider myself a fortunate person. With the exception of one major aspect, Pompe’s, I had all the luck in the world: loving parents, fine childhood, being able to study, interesting jobs abroad and in the Netherlands, extraordinary wife and two sons I’m very proud of. Good health, Pompe excepted. Being able to enjoy the good things in life. But most of all I was lucky to live in this time and place. Almost at any other time and in any other place I would not be here anymore.
How different was the life of JC Pompe.
He also was fortunate in almost all aspects of life. Good academic background, successful scientific career, loving family man. But he had the misfortune to live in the wrong time in the wrong place: in the Netherlands during the German occupation in the second world war. Being a brave and moral man he joined the Dutch resistance, leading to his execution just a month before the end of the war. So JC Pompe’s great misfortune was that he lived in the wrong time in the wrong place.
If you want to learn more about the life and works of this exceptional man, please read the blog of Kevin O’Donnell which he published ten years ago on his blog (Link).
And as an curiosity: the original thesis in which he described our disease for the first time. Which he named Cardiomegalia Glycogenica. In Dutch of course, but a short summary in English on page 82 (Link).
Gezinus Wolters, The Netherlands
