Do you know what illness that was?

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.

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? :-(

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.

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.