If you’ve watched Tick, Tick…Boom!, you may have questions about Jonathan Larson’s cause of death and how he died from an aortic aneurysm.

Tick, Tick…Boom!, which premiered on Netflix on November 19, 2021, is biographical musical drama based on the stage musical of the same name by Jonathan Larson (Andrew Garfield), a composer and playwrite who won three Tonys and a Pulitzer Prize for the Broadway musical Rent, which debuted after his death.

What was Jonathan Larson’s cause of death and how did he die.

Read on for what we know about Jonathan Larson’s aortic aneurysm that killed him.

Larson died on morning of January 25, 1996, of an aortic aneurysm.

The night before his death, Larson attended a final dress rehearsal for Rent before he returned home, where he died the morning after.

What was Jonathan Larson’s cause of death.

An autopsy found that Larson died of an aortic aneurysm—a tear inside the aorta, the main artery that carries blood from the heart to all other organs.

After Larson’s death, a four-month investigation by the New York State Health Department found that the doctors failed to diagnose him with Marfan’s syndrome, a potentially treatable condition, that killed him.

Barbara DeBuono, the New York State Health Commissioner at the time, told The New York Times in 1996 that Larson’s dissecting aortic aneurysm, which caused torn vessel lining in his aorta, would have been difficult to diagnose, but she still faulted the doctors for not being thorough enough in their efforts to find a reason for his chest pain.

After his death, lawyers for Larson’s estate filed a malpractice suit against both Cabrini Medical Center and St.

Vincent’s claimed that diagnosis Larson with an aortic aneurysm “would have been extremely difficult” given that aneurysms generally produce severe, constant chest paints that patient describe as “searing” or “ripping.” Lawyers for Larson claimed that his condition fit that description and he told doctors that the pain was worse each time he took a deep breath.

The department also believe that treatments and tests at Cabrini for food poisoning may have worsened Larson’s condition, as doctors at the hospital gave him a powerful painkiller that could have masked important symptoms that may have led to an accurate diagnosis.

DeBuono, however, did explain that the doctors may have been misled because Larson was young and most patients with aortic tears are older with high blood pressure.

She also couldn’t say for certain if either hospital would have been able to save Larson if he did receive the correct diagnosis, as the tear may have been already too extensive to repair.

Anthony Rapp, who played Mark in Larson’s first run of Rent, claimed that Larson would’ve been treated differently if Rent had come out. ”There a whole new wave of grief, knowing that this maybe could have been prevented,” he told The New York Times.