English Translation
He suffers from sudden fits of coughing.
searching for “発作” on google images only really gave examples of convulsions, is this really used for coughing fits?
I think 発作 is quite similar to the English word ‘attack’, like a heart attack (心臓発作) or an asthma attack (喘息発作). If you searched for 咳発作, you do get articles about coughing fits. The sentence is lacking context, but if it’s already clear that someone is talking to a medical professional about a coughing problem, the translation makes sense.