Korean Circ J.  2010 Dec;40(12):611-613. 10.4070/kcj.2010.40.12.611.

Infective Endocarditis and Phlebotomies May Have Killed Mozart

• Lee SJ

• KMID: 2225157
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.4070/kcj.2010.40.12.611

Abstract

Thirty-five year-old Amadeus Mozart died in Vienna after an acute illness that lasted only 15 days but no consensus has been reached on the cause of his death. From many letters written by his farther it is almost certain that he experienced at least three episodes of acute rheumatic fever attack in his childhood, and a relapse of rheumatic fever was suggested to have killed Mozart, although death from acute rheumatic fever is very rare in adults. His last illness was characterized by high fever, massive edema, vomiting and skin rash. His last illness can be explained by infectious endocarditis and heart failure. During his last hours, he was given phlebotomy, possibly for the third time in two weeks, and soon after he became unconscious and died. As such, phlebotomy performed on a man dehydrated by high fever and vomiting may have caused systemic shock. In summary, Mozart probably died from chronic rheumatic heart disease complicated by infective endocarditis and heart failure, and repeated phlebotomy-induced hypovolemic shock.

Keyword

Infective endocarditis; Bloodletting; Hypovolemic shock

MeSH Terms

Adult
Bloodletting
Consensus
Edema
Endocarditis
Exanthema
Fever
Heart Failure
Humans
Phlebotomy
Recurrence
Rheumatic Fever
Rheumatic Heart Disease
Shock
Unconscious (Psychology)
Vomiting

Figure

• 

  Fig. 1 Edema and cutaneous vasculitis in a patients with acute infective endocarditis.15) Perhaps Mozart had similar skin lesions which may have prompted the diagnosis of acute or severe miliary fever.

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