History Main / RoadsideSurgery

** One episode features the O.R. losing lighting and Radar improvising the solution of lining up jeeps outside with their headlights on, so that the medics can work.

[[caption-width-right:350:We have to operate -- but we're InSpace!]]
->'''Dr. Edwards:''' We almost did a thoracotomy in the ER.
->'''Dr. Grey:''' Yeah, this bought us some time.
->'''Dr. Edwards:''' No, I mean we almost ''got to do'' a thoracotomy, ''in the ER''. Which, you know, would have been amazing. [...] 'Cos, I mean, how many times do you get to operate outside the operating room?
->'''Dr. Webber:''' Okay, for the record, it sounds fun, until you do it.

* ''VideoGame/SurgeonSimulator2013'' plays it for laughs, by having Nigel - the highly inept surgeon you're playing as - performing surgery in various, less-than-ideal situations. This includes an ambulance with a [[DrivesLikeCrazy crazy driver]], him [[HospitalGurneyScene running down a corridor]], or operating while in space with zero gravity.
* ''VideoGame/TraumaCenter'':
** The chapter Caduceus on a Plane has you doing surgery on a plane. That sometimes experiences turbulence.

* ''VideoGame/TraumaTeam'':
** First response is all about this, light surgery to deal with problems on site ASAP and buying time for proper care.
** A few coleoscopy levels are set outside of the hospital, including one where you navigate through rubble at a disaster site.

** The chapter Cadecus on a plane has you doing surgery on a plane. That sometimes experiences turbulence.

** The sequel also has a level where you're forced to operate in a moving vehicle. You get a warning before a sharp turn is about to happen.

* Pretty common in ''Series/{{MASH}}'', but given they're in a war zone, it's probably not unlikely. They tend to refer to it as 'meatball surgery'.

* In 1995, orthopedic surgeon Angus Wallace and Doctor Tom Wong made news [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angus_Wallace#In-flight_surgery_with_a_coat-hanger_and_silverware for treating a woman for Pnuemothorax (air inside the chest but outside the lungs) while in flight]]. Fearing that landing the plane would kill the patient due to changes in air pressure, [[MeatgrinderSurgery the two used whatever equipment they could find or improvise,]] such as Cognac being used to sterilize a coat hanger. The treatment was a success, and the trip went without further incident. Reportedly, after it was all over [[INeedAFreakingDrink Wallace celebrated his success with a sip of the cognac.]]

* In 1995, orthopedic surgeon Angus Wallace and Doctor Tom Wong made news [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angus_Wallace#In-flight_surgery_with_a_coat-hanger_and_silverware for treating a woman for Pnuemothorax (air inside the chest but outside the lungs) while in flight]]. Fearing that landing the plane would kill the patient due to changes in air pressure, [[MeatgrinderSurgery the two used whatever equipment they could find or improvise,]] such as Cognac being used to sterilize a coat hanger. The treatment was a success, and the trip went without further incident. Reportedly, [[INeedAFreakingDrink Wallace celebrated this with a sip of the cognac after it was all over.]]

* In 1995, orthopedic surgeon Angus Wallace and Doctor Tom Wong made news for treating a woman for Pnuemothorax (air inside the chest but outside the lungs) while in flight. Fearing that landing the plane would kill the patient due to changes in air pressure, [[MeatgrinderSurgery the two used whatever equipment they could find or improvise,]] such as Cognac being used to sterilize a coat hanger. The treatment was a success, and the trip went without further incident. Reportedly, [[INeedAFreakingDrink Wallace celebrated this with a sip of the cognac after it was all over.]]

* In 1995, orthopedic surgeon Angus Wallace and Doctor Tom Wong made news for treating a woman for Pnuemothorax (air inside the chest but outside the lungs) while in flight. The treatment was a success, and the trip went without further incident.

Your standard MedicalDrama will have a lot of emergency surgeries, most of which take place in an OR (the cooler sounding name for a simple operating room). But then, not all medical dramas focus on a surgical team. And let's not forget about the RuleOfDrama. One way to get the right pulses racing is to have a MatterOfLifeAndDeath [[RaceAgainstTheClock time-sensitive surgery]] and no place to operate... except where you are right now.

It is also done in non-medical shows such as police shows, or by characters other than the doctors in the medical show if necessary. For example, in a big car crash, a nurse on the scene might have to do an emergency surgery to save a victim's life, with the emergency situation causing them to bend procedures. This usually leads to a big story about surgeons having to fix the roadside stitch-up job. Often, a BackalleyDoctor will have to operate in a grungy NoTellMotel or an empty apartment.

* In the humanised WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic fanfic ''Fanfic/GuppyLove'', Applejack finds the mermaid Rarity on the beach with a tail injury from an orca and looks after her with Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. To keep Rarity and her [[LikeBrotherAndSister sister-like companion]] Sweetie Belle from being discovered by other humans, Fluttershy performs the surgery on her injured tail with Rarity laying on a rock near the lake the two mermaids hide in.

* In ''The Impossible Virgin'', a Literature/ModestyBlaise novel, Modesty and Dr Giles Pennyfeather have to perform an emergency appendectomy in a cave where they and the patient are hiding from the villains. Giles has to talk Modesty through the surgery because the villains tortured him and his dominant hand is too injured to use. Modesty does note that there is one up-side to the situation: Giles got most of his surgical experience as a mission doctor in a remote African village, so he's used to working in primitive conditions; she jokes that he'd probably be more out of his element if they did have access to a proper operating theater with all the modern equipment.

* In the Russian Sci-Fi series ''Better Than Us'', [[spoiler:Georgiy]] has to preform this on [[spoiler:Zhanna after she gets shot in the leg]]. {{Deconstructed}}, as despite all the necessary medical supplies having been gathered and [[spoiler:Georgiy (who is a former surgeon)]] doing everything possible to sterilize the environment, the wound still gets infected and [[spoiler:Zhanna has to be taken to the hospital anyway (despite it being against her wishes) since she will die of sepsis otherwise.]]

* Pretty common in ''Series/{{MASH}}'', but given they're in a war zone, it's probably not unlikely.

* Shows up a couple of times in ''Series/DocMartin'', most notably in Martin and Louisa's honeymoon, when they wind up wandering through the countryside, lost, and stumble upon a paranoid farmer who manages to impale himself in the neck while trying to drive them off his land (ItMakesSenseInContext). Martin is forced to perform surgery in the farmer's non-too-clean farmhouse using nothing but fishing line, a fish hook, and a bottle of whiskey to sterilize his hands as best he can.

* In the Russian Sci-Fi series ''Better Than Us'', [[spoiler:Georgiy]] has to preform this on [[spoiler:Zhanna after she gets shot in the leg]]. {{Deconstructed}}, as despite all the necessary medical supplies having been gathered and [[spoiler:Georgiy (who is former surgeon)]] doing everything possible to sterilize the environment, the wound still gets infected and [[spoiler:Zhanna has to be taken to the hospital anyway (despite it being against her wishes) since she will die of sepsis otherwise.]]

The most common perpetrators are in an ambulance or ER/trauma center (A&E/Casualty [[SeparatedByACommonLanguage in the UK]]), but occasionally your doctors will have to operate in an AbandonedWarehouse, in the back of a taxi, or stranded in a [[WildWilderness forest]].

It is also done in non-medical shows, or by characters other than the doctors in the medical show if necessary (usually leading to a big story about fixing the fix), with the emphasis being on the emergency situation causing them to need to bend procedure. Often, a BackalleyDoctor will have to operate in a grungy NoTellMotel or an empty apartment, and rarely if ever an OR -- since that's normal for him, and part of the characterization, those instances go there.

This focuses on the story element of an unconventional surgery location and the associated drama, this drama constituting the danger of a necessary and immediate surgery; not having a suitable place and having to do the surgery out-of-OR; and the risks from performing surgery at that place.

See also MeatgrinderSurgery, a similar trope about operating without proper surgical tools, and OpenHeartDentistry, for when you can't find an appropriate physician for the surgery but get someone else with advanced medical training.

SuperTrope to InstantDramaJustAddTracheotomy, when the specific surgery in this situation is a tracheotomy, and SelfSurgery, when the specific surgeon in this situation is the wounded body.

The most common perpetrators are in an ambulance or ER/trauma center (A&E/Casualty [[SeparatedByACommonLanguage in the UK]]), but occasionally your doctors will have to operate in an abandoned warehouse, in the back of a taxi, or stranded in a forest.

It is also done in non-medical shows, or by characters other than the doctors in the medical show if necessary (usually leading to a big story about fixing the fix), with the emphasis being on the emergency situation causing them to need to bend procedure. Often, a BackalleyDoctor will have to operate in a literal back-alley, and rarely if ever an OR -- since that's normal for him, and part of the characterization, those instances go there.

* In the Russian Sci-Fi series ''Better Than Us'', [[spoiler:Georgiy]] has to preform this on [[spoiler:Zhanna after she gets shot in the leg]]. {{Deconstructed}}, as despite [[spoiler:Georgiy]] being a former surgeon and doing everything possible to sterilize the environment, the wound still gets infected and [[spoiler:Zhanna has to be taken to the hospital anyway (despite it being against her wishes) since she will die of sepsis otherwise.]]