History Main / SelfStitching

* CareerKiller {{Leon}} returns to his apartment and is seen patching himself up in the shower, showing that he had been injured carrying out one of his hits.

* In the ''Series/DoctorWho'' EighthDoctorAdventures, the Doctor pops his own dislocated shoulder back in. It's not that he's alone, but he probably figured it's better to do it himself than to make Fitz feel guilty for hurting him.[[hottip:*:Later in the same book, Fitz feels obliged to make it up to a budgie for startling it, so... he's pretty clearly [[NiceGuy a bit of a sensitive chap]].]]

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* PlayedForLaughs in "Smile Time" when {{Angel}} gets mauled by a werewolf [[PuppetPermutation after being turned into a puppet]], but can't stitch himself up due to his puppet hands.

* Characters sewing up their own wounds (and whether you get XP for it) is a running gag in ''KnightsOfTheDinnerTable''.

See also PullingHimselfTogether.

* StephenKing had a grisly short story about a doctor who survives some kind of wreck and winds up on a flyspeck island in the middle of the ocean. Eventually the good doctor has to [[NoPartyLikeADonnerParty turn cannibal]] on ''himself'', cutting off certain parts, eating them, then taking care so that the area around the sacrificed part wouldn't get infected or anything. At the very end of the story the doctor, who is a surgeon and has been taking very good care of his hands the whole time, finally gets desperate enough to start looking at them... (Apparently when King first had this idea, he ran into a local doctor he knew at the supermarket and asked about whether the idea was at all feasible in real life. The doctor gave him a very odd look before replying that yes, it was theoretically possible).

* Possibly subverted on ''{{Lost}}''. Jack insists on being awake so he can talk Juliet through performing an appendectomy on him, but after she begins they decide to knock him out as he's in too much pain.

* ''MetalGearSolid 3: Snake Eater''. Part of the gameplay is that, rather than just [[HyperactiveMetabolism eating Rations to heal]], you have to perform first aid on yourself to recover from most injuries. That includes digging out bullets and arrows with your knife, sewing up wounds, and the like.

* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] and subverted in ''TheDarkKnightSaga'' when Alfred finds Bruce stitching up a dog bite on his arm and remarks "Whenever you stitch yourself up, you do make a bloody mess" before taking over.

May involve WeHaveToGetTheBulletOut or LifeOrLimbDecision. If the character isn't medically trained, it's probably an examplle of WorstAid. If they ''are'', it's a particularly extreme example of OneOfOurOwn.

Compare PullingHimselfTogether.

Compare PullingHimselfTogether.

* TheTerminator can do this as he FeelsNoPain.

* ''[[ImGonnaGitYouSucka I'm Gonna Git You Sucka]]'' has a parody of the above Rambo scene when Jack Spade digs a splinter out of his finger.

* [[{{LampshadeHanging}} Lampshaded]] and subverted in ''TheDarkKnightSaga'' when Alfred finds Bruce stitching up a dog bite on his arm and remarks "Whenever you stitch yourself up, you do make a bloody mess" before taking over.

* Igors in {{Discworld}} do surgery on themselves all the time. Subverted, in a way, in that they don't actually feel any pain while doing this, so it's never an ordeal unless they have difficulty keeping the mirror steady. Even the visible scars are an affectation - they're perfectly capable of stitching seamlessly.

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[[folder:WesternAnimation]]

[[folder:VideoGames]]

* ''{{Predator}} 2''. The Predator applying hot coals to the stump of its amputated hand to cauterize the wound.

* The title villain in ''DrGiggles'' is shot in the leg at one point, and not only does the surgical work to remove the bullet and stitch up the wound himself, but he does it as if he had a full medical staff, down to requesting (and handing himself) various tools to work with. Of course, this was less him being BadAss and more him being [[AxCrazy bat-shit insane]].

* Dalton in ''RoadHouse'' sews his wounds from the opening scene, to establish how BadAss he is. Website/TheAgonyBooth's recap humorously captioned this with "Warning: Do not try to be this much of a badass at home."

* In ''{{Saw}}'', the BigBad often requires his "students" to perform grievous injuries to oneself to pass his trials. More often than not, they are given appropiate surgical equipment for the task. One scene in the first movie involves a surgeon [[LifeOrLimbDecision chopping his foot off with a bonesaw in order to escape]].

* StephenKing had a grisly short story about a doctor who survives some kind of wreck and winds up on a flyspeck island in the middle of the ocean. Eventually the good doctor has to [[NoPartyLikeADonnerParty turn cannibal]] on ''himself'', cutting off certain parts, eating them, then taking care so that the area around the sacrificed part wouldn't get infected or anything. At the very end of the story the doctor, who is a surgeon and has been taking very good care of his hands the whole time, finally gets desperate enough to start looking at them... (Apparently when King first had this idea, he ran into a local doctor he knew at the supermarket and asked about whether the idea was at all feasible in real life. The doctor gave him a very odd look before replying that [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel yes, it was theoretically possible]]).

* {{Rambo}} sews up his wounds in the first movie, and in ''Rambo III'' digs shrapnel out of his side and then [[HealItWithFire cauterizes the wound with burning gunpowder]].

[[folder:WebOriginal]]
* The WebOriginal/SCPFoundation has [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-542 SCP-542]], a stitched-together [[FrankensteinsMonster Frankensteinian]] HerrDoktor type who routinely did this in order to replace his organs as they failed before he was taken into the care of the foundation.

[[folder:RealLife]]

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* Dalton in ''RoadHouse'' sews his wounds from the opening scene, to establish how BadAss he is. The WebOriginal/AgonyBooth's recap humorously captioned this with "Warning: Do not try to be this much of a badass at home."

* Played with in ''Silent Running'' when the protagonist reprograms a robot to perform surgery on his badly injured leg.

* Happens semi-regularly on ''{{House}}''. Perhaps one of the most unpleasant examples came when House discovered he had several small tumours in his leg, and was forced to cut his leg open to remove them.

* The SCPFoundation has [[http://www.scp-wiki.net/scp-542 SCP-542]], a stitched-together [[FrankensteinsMonster Frankensteinian]] HerrDoktor type who routinely did this in order to replace his organs as they failed before he was taken into the care of the foundation.

[[/folder]]

A character for one reason or another can't go to a hospital, so they treat their own injuries. An oft-seen version of this trope (to establish the BadAss credentials of a character) involves sewing the injury up, with or without the use of anaesthetic. They may also HealItWithFire.

* Dalton in ''RoadHouse'' sews his wounds from the opening scene, to establish how BadAss he is. The AgonyBooth's recap humorously captioned this with "Warning: Do not try to be this much of a badass at home."

* The titular villain in ''Dr. Giggles'' was shot or something at some point, and not only does the surgical work to remove the bullet and stitch up the wound himself, but he does it as if he had a full medical staff, down to requesting (and handing himself) various tools to work with. Of course, this was less him being BadAss and more him being [[AxCrazy bat-shit insane]].

* Though perhaps different, Franky of OnePiece [[spoiler: completely rebuilt himself as a cyborg after suffering tremendous injury from being hit by a sea train. He did this with his own hands, without any assistance, and was thus only able to modify everything but his back, which he couldn't reach or see to work on.]]

* CastAway features a scene where Chuck has to extract a bothersome tooth. Using an ice skate. [[{{Squick}} Yeah.]]
* [[{{LampshadeHanging}} Lampshaded]] and subverted in TheDarkKnightSaga when Alfred finds Bruce stitching up a dog bite on his arm and remarks "Whenever you stitch yourself up, you do make a bloody mess" before taking over.

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* Which reminds me, of course, of the infamous 'Masochist Game', ''RobinsonsRequiem''. Basically a 'survive on an empty planet' game, one of the main challenges is that you have to perform realistic first aid on yourself - sewing up and dressing wounds, making splints, and - if necessary - performing amputations.

* In the DoctorWho EighthDoctorAdventures, the Doctor pops his own dislocated shoulder back in. It's not that he's alone, but he probably figured it's better to do it himself than to make Fitz feel guilty for hurting him.[[hottip:*:Later in the same book, Fitz feels obliged to make it up to a budgie for startling it, so... he's pretty clearly [[NiceGuy a bit of a sensitive chap]].]]

Compare PullingHimselfTogether. May involve WorstAid.

* Chigurh does this in ''NoCountryForOldMen'', as if he wasn't BadAss enough. He [[WeNeedADistraction torches a car so he can steal the antibiotics he needs from a chemist shop unobserved]].

* Would Sally from ''TheNightmareBeforeChristmas'' count? She completely sews herself back together... but then she ''is'' a rag doll.

[[folder:Comics]]
* During a battle between {{Lobo}} and his daughter they slash each other up so badly their regenerative powers can't keep up, so they take a break to stitch themselves up.
* The [[UltimateXMen Ultimate]] [[PlayingWithFire Pyro]] is covered with scars due to [[HealItWithFire cauterizing his wounds]] whenever he gets shot during one of his mutant protest.

* A variation on ''{{Firefly}}'': [[TheMedic Simon]] did not do the surgery on himself, but he DID talk [[TheLancer Zoe]] through the whole process while she removed a bullet and dressed the wound. Once she was finished, Simon declared his intent to immediately pass out.

[[folder:Literature]]
* In the {{Aubrey-Maturin}} novel ''HMS Surprise'', Dr. Stephen Maturin performs surgery to remove a bullet from his own ribs after being wounded in a duel (also seen in ''MasterAndCommanderTheFarSideOfTheWorld'' after Maturin gets shot accidentally).
* Miss Gard of ''TheDresdenFiles'' series once stuffed a portion of her own intestines back into her body and used Super Glue to seal the wound. [[spoiler: Probably made easier by being a Valkyrie, but still damn impressive.]]
* Eve Dallas does this after being injured by a random criminal in one ''InDeath'' book. Her captain later calls in an actual medic to look at the wound, much to her displeasure.
* M'k'n'zy of Calhoun does this in the very first book of ''StarTrekNewFrontier.'' He closes his own facial wound. ''[[{{Squick}} With a laser welder]].'' The scar is one of his defining facial features as TheCaptain.
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* BlackJack once performed a full surgery on his own abdomen, while being circled by hungry dingos. Black Jack also talked a quack doctor through performing surgery on him, which the quack had never done before. Soon after, the quack declared his intention to go to medical school for real.