That is where death has been deemed as the ONLY way for you to learn. In the spirit worlds, those on the Earth plane with serious illnesses are called butterflies. This is because illness has put them into a cocoon of survival. The more serious the illness, the greater the need to change ways of life that no longer serve the individual. As long as I ignored it, illness clung to me.
Illnesses run like trains on a predefined track with predetermined timetables.
While you choose to ignore the illness, it keeps going, chugging on schedule down the track. Ignoring it never stops the illness train. What stops it is a conscious desire on your part to switch to a safer length of track. When it comes to caring about and understanding your condition, never forget that only you really care and only you really understand because only you are living with it. You can always learn more about your condition but your doctor can never live inside your skin.