It Wasn't The Illness That Killed Them is when a person with a fatal illness dies from something else.
Often used as a lesson of the unpredictability of life and death. If writers are extra cruel they could have the person either being misdiagnosed or cured before getting killed.
People may invoked this trope; they can't handle dying slowly from their illness and would rather go out on their own terms. Though straight forward suicide may not be ideal but something more elaborate may be used.
While the illness maybe known before hand, there can be cases of postmortem when the illness is discovered.
Spoiler Warning since it is a Death Trope.
Examples:
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Literature
- I Want to Eat Your Pancreas centers around Sakura Yamauchi who has pancreatic cancer and doesn't have that long to live. However she actually gets murdered by a serial killer.
Live-Action TV
- In Heroes, Hiro becomes smitten with a waitress name Charlene. Unfortunately she ends getting killed by Skylar. Later in the first season, Hiro goes back in the past in an attempt to save Charlene. However, it turns out she was already dying because of a blood clot in her brain.
- Kamen Rider Ex-Aid: In the past, Kiriya Kujo told his friend he had the Bugter Virus which was a guaranteed death sentence at the time. The news freaks out Kiriya's friend and he ends up dying in a traffic accident in his despair. There is a strong indication he intentionally killed himself.
- Shuichi Kitaoka/Kamen Rider Zolda from Kamen Rider Ryuki has terminal cancer and is participating in the Rider War. Though, he only dies in battle in the alternate movie and one special episode. He actually succumbed to his disease in the main tv series.
Western Animation
- Bojack Horseman: Herb Kazazz had cancer which is very advanced and doesn't look like he has that long to live. Later on Bojack does attend his funeral. However, he didn't die from cancer. Instead, his cancer was in remission and he died when his car crashed into a peanut truck and had a deadly allergic reaction. And just for irony sake, his car crashed because he was twitting how he was going "to live forever".
