Return to India and Death

Plagued by health problems all through his life, living in a country far away from home, and obsessively involved with his mathematics, Ramanujan's health worsened in England, perhaps exacerbated by stress, and by the scarcity of vegetarian food during the First World War. Ramanujan fell seriously ill in 1917 and his doctors feared that he would die.

He did improve a little by September but spent most of his time in various nursing homes. He was diagnosed with tuberculosis and a severe vitamin deficiency and was confined to a sanatorium. Ramanujan sailed to India on 27 February 1919 arriving on 13 March. However his health was very poor and, despite medical treatment, he died there the following year that is on 26 April 1920 at the age of 32. His wife, S. Janaki Ammal, lived in Chennai until her death in 1994. A 1994 analysis of Ramanujan's medical records and symptoms by Dr. D.A.B. Young concluded that it was much more likely he had hepatic amoebiasis, a parasitic infection of the liver. This is supported by the fact that Ramanujan had spent time in Madras, where the disease was widespread. He had had two cases of dysentery before he left India. When not properly treated, dysentery can lie dormant for years and lead to hepatic amoebiasis 1. It was a difficult disease to diagnose, but once diagnosed would have been readily curable (Berndt, 1998).
source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Srinivasa_Ramanujan

Sankalp Unit