Name of movie about a sick girl?

In the 80s or 90s I saw a movie on TV (possibly a made-for-TV movie) about a girl and her parents and their struggle with an illness the girl had. I think she was about 10 years old, and I believe she had dark, short hair. She had some illness that continuously made her cough, and I remember one scene where she coughs up blood into a sink, and her worried mother or father washes it down the drain. The doctors could not cure her. In the last scene of the movie, the girl is in bed and her parents are in the room talking with her. She asks for some root beer, and then she suddenly dies right before her father hands it to her.

This movie traumatized me. I think watching it made me realize the reality of death for the first time. I would love to know the name of this movie!

The only thing I can think of is Gas Attack. But that movie has only one scene with a sick girl who coughs like that, and her parents wash her blood down the drain. There is also something about root beer near the end, but I know it had nothing to do with the little girl's death. Plus, it came out in 2001.

No, that's not it... I am sure I watched it in the late 80s or early 90s... Thanks for trying, and let me know if you think of anything else! =)

Six Weeks (1982) with Dudley Moore and Mary Tyler Moore is about a terminally ill pre-teen girl, but her death scene is on a subway car in New York City, not a hospital room asking for root beer.




But after some quick Googling I came up with a made-for-TV flick "ALEX: The Life of a Child" (1986), starring Craig T. Nelson and Bonnie Bedlia as the parents of a young girl who died at the age of eight from Cystic Fibrosis. It's based on the true story of sports writer Frank Deford's daughter, adapted from his non-fiction book of the same title. That's your root beer memory.

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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

That's the same movie I thought of, when I read the first sentence. I really did like it, but it's too sad to watch again.

Alex sounds too sad to watch, as well. It looks like the right answer, though.

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A Child's Wish, 1995.

Starring John Ritter and Anna Chlumsky, with a special appearance by sitting President William Jefferson Clinton.

Maybe?

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...uh the post is up there...

YES, THAT'S IT! ALEX: The Life of a Child. Thanks so much for your help!