History Main / IncurableCoughOfDeath

* In the little known [[http://forum.fanfiction.net/forum/WHOO_Kingdom_Hearts_RPG/80471/ WHOO!]] ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' RPG! The character Reeves seems to have contracted one. Trolololo

** Izumi Curtis does this, although she isn't the usual character type. And there's a darker reason for the cough than just illness. [[spoiler:A failed attempt to transmute her stillborn infant son back to life caused the destruction of her internal reproductive organs.]] The hemorrhaging gets much worse during periods of extreme stress or guilt, causing her to cough up a truly frightening amount of blood. In spite of this, she still [[spoiler:outlives nearly every major character while enduring heavy combat]]. In the [[Manga/FullmetalAlchemist manga]], [[spoiler:Hohenheim later cures her Incurable Cough Of Death. He cannot bring her organs back, but via an alchemical punch to the gut he can permanently stop the bleeding and the cough.]] Ironic, no? In the [[Anime/FullmetalAlchemist 2003 anime]], [[spoiler:she survives the series but dies of her injuries off-screen by TheMovie]]. That said, [[Creator/HiromuArakawa Hiromu Arakawa's]] signature [[MoodWhiplash sense of humor]] manages to make even ''this'' trope funny. Such as when Izumi was caught a thug while looking for the Elrics.

* In the ''Anime/CowboyBebop'' episode ''Jupter Jazz Part 2'', Gren starts coughing and bleeding from the mouth as a result of internal injuries sustained in a fight with Vicious. Spike tries to summon medical aid, but Gren tells him not to bother, since he's dying anyway, and asks Spike to instead tow his ship into orbit. He dies in the cockpit and the ship crashes back to the planet's surface.

* Used in ''Shadrach'' where Paul's mother has a persistent cough, probably from tuberculosis, and dies a few years after the events in the movie.

* ''Miss Potter'': Ewan [=McGregor=]'s character, Norman Warne. Mr. Warne's sister has to tell his fiancee Beatrix that Norman died suddenly, possibly caused by getting rained on at the train station to say goodbye to Beatrix. "It was just a cough!", Millie Warne says. Actually Norman Warne died of Leukemia, which apparently doesn't cause coughing, but maybe that's not nearly as "romantic"?

* Yuna Miyama from ''Anime/{{Maburaho}}'' starts coughing, but this is later subverted when [[spoiler:Kazuki Shikimori dies healing her.]]

* The disease in ''Film/{{Contagion}}'' takes this form, killing you mere days after you start coughing. [[spoiler:Subverted on the "incurable" part, though, as a vaccine ends up being created at the end of the film]].

Sister trope of DeadlyNosebleed. Compare SoapOperaDisease and VictorianNovelDisease. If the character insists that it's nothing, then it's DefinitelyJustACold. The trope may also lead to a HealthcareMotivation. Compare WringEveryLastDropOutOfHim.

* Wiki/TheOtherWiki says the following about the voice actor [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Varney Jim Varney]]: During the filming of ''Treehouse Hostage'' in August 1998, Varney started developing a bad cough. As the cough became worse, Varney began noticing blood on his handkerchief and, after filming was complete, he went to the doctor. A chain smoker, Varney had developed lung cancer.

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheBoyAndTheWorld'', a harvester has a terrible cough. [[spoiler:It's implied that his cough isn't what kills him, it's the government that doesn't find him useful anymore.]]

* In ''Fanfic/{{Destiny}}'', Angel realizes that she's dying when she coughs up blood.

* [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic COVID-19]]. Starts with coughing (which can last for weeks) and fever, in serious cases can lead to difficulty breathing and even death (especially if comorbidities are involved). And there is currently no cure.

* Lord Gyles Rosby, a [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters minor character]] from ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'', was known for his constant coughing. [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Queen]] Cersei appointed him to her Council (because the alternative was Garth The Gross, a man troubled by constant flatulence who was also a bannerman of Lord Tyrell, who Cersei despises), after which he promptly died.

** PlayedForLaughs as a running gag for [[BareFistedMonk Brokeena]], who is an EccentricMentor, as he's always coughing and talking about how he's soon going to die from an obviously fake illness. Some flashbacks revealed he has been doing this since Avan's early hero days, which took place many years prior to the present-time StoryArc.

This is usually accompanied by [[HighPressureBlood nasty amounts]] of BloodFromTheMouth which is always a bad sign, even when there's no plausible reason for it. May also involve collapsing. The character will probably try to hide it and will usually succeed until they actually pass out. This trope is almost always carried out by the IllGirl or the LittlestCancerPatient. A more proactive sufferer may be a DeathSeeker looking for AGoodWayToDie or an OldMaster desperate to train TheChosenOne before the illness takes them.

* In ''VisualNovel/{{Clannad}}'', IllGirl Nagisa has an evidently non-lethal version of this. [[spoiler: Until she gives birth, which complicates things a bit.]]

** IllBoy Alfons Heiderich ''Anime/FullmetalAlchemistTheConquerorOfShamballa'' also has a Cough of Death, and [[JustifiedTrope for a more traditional reason:]] fumes from the rocket fuels he was creating have destroyed his lungs. [[spoiler:As it turns out, that isn't what eventually kills him. It's Rudolf Hess shooting him does.]]

** And then we have the IllBoy Akinari Kamiki, the Sun Social Link, a frail, thin young man who has this nasty tendency to go into such fits of coughing that he ends up briefly unable to speak. The name the game gives his Social Link says it all: "Dying Young Man". Notable for actually giving an identity to his ailment (a terminal genetic disorder). [[spoiler:He actually ''does'' fall victim to his illness, and it's hinted that, in a case of NotTooDeadToSaveTheDay, it's his ghost who gives you his book as a TragicKeepsake if you max said Link. Also, his soul will cheer on you before you go fight the BigBad.]]

* Spoofed in ''Sengoku Rance'': Okita Nozomi does the classic IllGirl coughing routine, and is identified as having the "Cough Cough Disease", a disease whose only symptom is prolonged coughing fits. The game notes that it's easily treatable, but if it goes on for too long, it can eventually be lethal.

* [[UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic COVID-19]]. Starts with coughing (which can last for weeks) and fever, in serious cases can lead to difficulty breathing and even death (if comorbidities are involved). And there is currently no cure.

** [[spoiler: Kenshin, and then Kaoru]] contract some kind of unspecified disease in the [[NonSerialMovie Seisouhen OVA]] whose symptoms include this. (The [[FanNickname fans]] called it "Super Tuberculosis".)

** The "[[FanNickname Slendycough]]" idea got picked up by a few other stories in Franchise/TheSlenderManMythos, with one suggesting that it's due to [[spoiler: Slender Man dragging the victim back and forth through time, which the human body is not designed to handle]].

* In the ''ComicBook/Marvel1602'' miniseries, Queen Elizabeth I is shown coughing blood into a handkerchief. To be fair, she WAS rather old, and history records that she died in 1603. [[spoiler:Count Otto von Doom's poison device renders the question moot, though.]]
* In ''Franchise/GreenLantern's ComicBook/SinestroCorpsWar'', Guy Gardner coughs in mid-battle, indicating that he's infected by the sentient bio-virus Despotellis. He soldiers on and fights, until eventually collapsing, before the Corps medic injects him with Leezle Pon, a sentient smallpox virus... who's also a ComicBook/GreenLantern. Two viruses enter, one leaves victorious.
* Strangely averted in ''ComicBook/FiftyTwo'', when it is revealed that [[ComicBook/TheQuestion Vic Sage]] knew he was dying of lung cancer since before the start of the series, but the only hint of that is him disapproving of his protégées smoking, and that is treated like a RunningGag more than anything. Of course, once the cat is out of the bag, his symptoms starts to show. ''Fast.''
* ''ComicBook/{{Supergirl}}'': During the [[ComicBook/Supergirl2005 Sterling Gates/Jamal Igle's run]] ComicBook/LanaLang was often shown coughing or vomiting blood. She managed to keep it from Kara for a while until the Girl of Steel finally found out. A quick XRayVision scan indicated a strange organism was mixing with the cells around it. Later it was revealed that [[spoiler:villain Insect Queen was taking over Lana.]]
* In an issue of ''Comicbook/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtlesAdventures'', the turtles find themselves in the Caribbean in 1492 in time for Christopher Columbus' "discovery" (ItMakesSenseInContext), and one of the natives develops a cough, foreshadowing the epidemic from diseases the Europeans brought over that they themselves had immunities against.

* In ''Film/TheHost'', coming into contact with the tadpole monster reportedly infects the touched with a lethal virus. When main character Gang-Du is infected, the media makes a big case about how he is exhibiting "cold-like symptoms", including coughing (which leads to some mild hysteria on the streets of Seoul when a man coughs in a crowd while the media piece is playing). Subverted in that [[spoiler:the virus ''doesn't actually exist'' (the US Army stuck with the story because it was too late to say they were wrong), and Gang-Du probably just has a cold]].

* In ''Literature/GideonTheNinth'', Dulcinea is dying from advanced stage blood cancer, and is prone to coughing blood. [[spoiler:Made more complicated by the fact that she's actually TheAgeless and has essentially been trapped in a state of dying for ''ten thousand years''.]]