On October 10 of 1900, Wilde underwent an operation that was likely to do with his flaring ear infections which came and went and only seemed to grow worse. After the operation, he still suffered and went through a great deal of pain and the infection only worsened -- by late November he experienced delirium and fell into a coma, which then led to his death -- not syphilis like it was previously believed and published in a biography of Oscar Wilde in 1988 by Richard Ellmann.