What stunned people most was the reason for Jim Henson's death. He hadn't been suffering from a prolonged terminal illness. What killed him was bacterial pneumonia. It's hard for most people to imagine pneumonia being a death sentence for someone still relatively young; pneumonia is generally considered dangerous for children and the elderly. But Henson had contracted a rare, virulent form of bacterial pneumonia — Group A streptococcus, or Streptococcus pyogenes — and he delayed seeking treatment.
As noted by Entertainment Weekly, it seemed that Henson was simply dealing with a bad cold or strep throat. "I'm just tired," he reportedly told his daughter Cheryl. Soon it was apparent that Henson wasn't getting any better — only worse. By all appearances, the pneumonia in his system looked like the flu. It wasn't until he began coughing up blood that he was rushed to a New York Hospital. It was too late by then — his organs had started to shut down, and his body would not respond to antibiotics.
He was admitted to the hospital on a Tuesday night and died at 1:21 a.m. on Wednesday, May 16, 1990. Bacterial pneumonia had completely destroyed his lungs within a matter of days. According to The Orlando Sentinel, Dr. David M. Gelmont, hospital director of medical intensive care, seemed convinced that Henson, who reportedly suffered two cardiac arrests before his death, could have been saved had he arrived just a day or two earlier: "If he would have come on Sunday, we probably could have saved him. If he had come on Monday, we probably could have saved him. If he had come in around midnight (Monday), I don't know, maybe."
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