answersLogoWhite

0

Chopin died on Oct. 17, 1849. Over 4,000 people attended his funeral services, when, by instructions in Chopin's will, Mozart's Requiem was performed. His body was interred in the Pere Lachaise cemetery.

The death certificate mentioned tuberculosis, but an autopsy undertaken later by the eminent Parisian physician Dr. Jean Baptiste Cruveilhier declared that no tuberculosis was encountered in the lungs or elsewhere. He stated that in the lungs were pathologic changes that he had never previously seen.

What then caused Chopin's death? Some students of pulmonary disease have conjectured that Chopin was the victim of a heritable disease of altered mucous secretion, called mucoviscidosis, which impedes the absorption of oxygen in the lungs and encourages the growth of pneumonia-causing bacteria.

A further exploration of the medical conditions afflicting members of Chopin's immediate family reveals that his younger sister, Emilia, died of an undiagnosed lung disease before she turned 14 and his older sister, Ludovika, also died of an unspecified lung affliction when she was 47.

The more serious manifestation of this genetic disorder, affecting the lungs primarily, is now called cystic fibrosis. The disease and its genetic ramifications were not fully described until 1932, 83 years after the death of Frederic Chopin.

User Avatar

Wiki User

15y ago

What else can I help you with?