[fuligo]

His colleagues and family went to considerable lengths keeping it out of the spotlight - so we can assume he didn't want people to know. That means it's probably an illness with a significant stigma, likely something with a strong mental component.

While personally I think it's a missed opportunity to raise awareness of a potentially fatal disease, and a missed chance for the people who admired him to make a final human connection (cause of death is generally considered a necessary element of reaching closure), it's their prerogative to keep it a secret. And if he wanted people to know, he'd probably have addressed the issue.

[grover_hartmann]

Was it diabetes?

"I'm also not jumping back in too quickly as the stress had agravated my recently diagnosed type 2 adult onset diabetes which is what landed me in the hospital." -- Ezra Zygmuntowicz

"@inetdavid type2 adult onset. too much hacking for 18 hours a day drinking red bull and eating fast food. lost 118lbs after diagnosed!" -- Ezra Zygmuntowicz

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/trinitylabs-talk/f8XOageAwcY...

https://twitter.com/ezmobius/status/362228490176692224

How can type 2 diabetes kill a person after only 1 year of being diagnosed? What the hell? :-(

[bmm6o]

There can certainly be complications, but diabetes is usually considered manageable with an otherwise healthy patient. There's really no point in speculating without more information, so I'd drop it unless/until more is made public.

[bigtunacan]

No idea what happened to Ezra; sad to see him go. I am not in anyway speculating about what happened to Ezra.

That said, as a diabetic myself, I am answering this really only to your question, "How can type 2 diabetes kill a person after only 1 year of being diagnosed? What the hell?"

First - there is a very high correlation of age and aggression of disease progression within people with type 2 diabetes. What I am saying here is, on average, the younger you are when diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes, the higher the likely hood of early/severe complications.

Second - uncontrolled high blood sugars can lead to diabetic ketoacidosis which can be fatal. This can come on very quickly. Additionally; if a diabetic goes into diabetic ketoacidosis and pulls through they become at a much greater risk of having this happen again in the future.

Third - Dead in Bed Syndrome - This is the sudden death of a diabetic in their sleep and accounts for the deaths of 6% of all type 1 diabetics under age 40. This one is highly tied to Type 1 diabetes, but can also occur in Type 2 diabetic that require insulin therapy.

I'm terribly sorry to see him go and not for the Ruby/Rails or programming community that so looked up to him, but for his family and his son to him he will always be irreplaceable.