History Main / SickbedSlaying

* ''Series/StarTrekPicard''. Done as BookEnds in "Stardust City Rag". In the opening flashback scene, Seven of Nine has to MercyKill Icheb who has been StrappedToAnOperatingTable and [[OrganTheft vivisected for his Borg components]]. At the end of the episode [[spoiler:Bruce Maddox]] has been rescued from criminals, but he's suffering from severe internal injuries, so he's taken to the ''La Sirena'''s sickbay. [[spoiler:His former lover Jurati is revealed to be TheMole when she turns off his bio-bed]] and [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone watches in horror]] as he dies of internal hemorrhaging.

* ''Series/StarTrekPicard'':
** In "Stardust City Rag", Seven of Nine [[spoiler:euthanizes Icheb]] at his request, who's slowly dying from being mutilated for his Borg implants on an operating table.
** Later in the same episode, [[spoiler:Bruce Maddox]] is rescued from criminals, but he's suffering from severe internal injuries, so he's taken to the ''La Sirena'''s sickbay. His former lover [[spoiler:Jurati is revealed to be TheMole when she turns off his bio-bed]] and watches in horror as he dies of internal hemorrhaging.

* ''Series/KungFu: The Legend Continues'' in the pilot episode Pete has to save his hospitalize newly discovered previously thought dead father.

* At the end of ''VideoGame/DreamfallTheLongestJourney'', [[spoiler:Zoe Castillo]] is drugged by Helena Chang to save the real world via dreaming. After she is done, Helena injects her with even more drug, to make sure she never wakes up again. Apparently, it only works half-way: [[spoiler:Zoe]] cannot wake up but possesses a lot of power even when sleeping.

* Broderick Bode in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix''. His friends sent him flowers. One of them was actually Devil's Snare.

* ''WesternAnimation/BatmanTheAnimatedSeries'': In "I Am The Night", Commissioner Gordon is badly wounded in a shootout. The mobster who shot him (who wants revenge on Gordon for sending him to prison) goes to the hospital to finish the job, but [[BigDamnHeroes Batman stops him]].

[[quoteright:350:[[Film/KillBill https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/daril.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:This won't hurt a bit...]]

* Touched on in ''Fanfic/DungeonKeeperAmi'' and featured following Ami's first real battle as a Keeper (commanding her forces, as opposed to adventuring alone like a hero). The battle against the Keeper Malleaus is a grueling contest of attrition and leaves her utterly exhausted and lightly wounded. Upon her return to her own dungeon, she collapses and has to be carried to bed. Jered, a heroic adventurer she met while exploring the surface world and recruited mostly due to convenience, briefly considers killing her in this fashion, due to the fact that she is at her most vulnerable. It is a true testament to how obvious Ami's heroic nature is that he doesn’t, every other instance of Keeper in the series is unapologetic evil.

* Attempted in the ''Franchise/StarWars'' fic ''[[https://m.fanfiction.net/s/6896969/1/Once-Upon-A-Rebellion Once Upon a Rebellion]]''. After a rebel mission is sabotaged, a woman who already tried to kill Han Solo once escapes her guards after arrest and tries to kill the injured Han again by strangling him with oxygen tubing. It backfires, though, as Han has enough strength to pull her away and over the bed, and he renders her unconscious. Then,her head catches in the bed rails as he pushes her off of him and her neck breaks, killing her. He’s in bad shape and needs more emergency care, but lives.

* In ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureVentoAureo,'' when Bruno Bucciarati was a child, his father was shot 7 times by two criminals when he saw them making a drug deal, but he survived and was taken to the hospital. When the men came back to finish the job, Bruno was waiting under his father's hospital bed and killed both of them.

* ''Film/TheMcKenzieBreak:'' The prisoners kill [[spoiler:Berger, who O'Connor is questioning about the escape plan]], while he's in the hospital.

%% Image selected via crowner in the Image Suggestion thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php/ImagePickin/ImageSuggestions54
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* ''Series/{{Braquo}}'':
** In Season 2, [[spoiler:Antoine Bleuvenne]] tries to smother Commandant Marceau after learning he emerged from his coma. [[spoiler: He fails because Marceau was already dead and the SDPJ was laying a trap.]]
** In Season 3, [[spoiler: Roxanne]] kills [[spoiler:Theo]] by cutting off his ventilator. Given his condition, however, this was a MercyKill.
* ''Series/CriminalMinds'': [[spoiler:Spencer Reid]] gets shot in the episode "Angels" and spends most of the following episode "Demons" recovering in the hospital, attended to by Garcia. When a nurse comes in to give post-op antibiotics, they're suspicious because those drugs have already been given, and [[spoiler:Reid]] outright starts to panic when the nurse identifies the drug as one they're allergic to and refuses to stop. Then they see the gun in his waistband, and the "recovery" subplot turns into a "stop the hospital assassin" subplot which culminates in [[spoiler:Garcia shooting him.]]

* Attempted on [[spoiler:the main character]] in ''VideoGame/{{Sanitarium}}''.

* In ''VideoGame/BrokenSword'' you must pretend to be a doctor to speak to someone, however an assassin does exactly the same thing, invoking this trope. Nico lampshades this.
-->[[ObliviousGuiltSlinging Who could violate someone's trust by pretending to be a doctor?]]
* ''VisualNovel/ApolloJusticeAceAttorney'' has the killing of Magnifi who was dying in hospital from liver cancer and diabetes when his murderer apparently came in and shot through the head. Subverted in that he ordered his own killing. [[spoiler: And further subverted in that neither of the people who he ordered to kill him could bring themselves to do it, and so he committed suicide.]]
* In ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'', [[TheMafia Jimmy Pegorino]] tasks [[PlayerCharacter Niko Bellic]] to go to the hospital and kill a traitorous underling that had suffered a heart attack when he was found out. You get in by disguising yourself as a nurse. Once you reach the target, you can either dispatch him quickly with a headshot or [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential turn off his life support, which causes him to asphyxiate]].
* Any ''VideoGame/{{Hitman}}'' level that takes place in Hospital this will occur. HOW it occurs is the question. In the [[Videogame/Hitman2016 2016]] Season 1 finale, you can even show the chief surgeon his patient is also [[YouKilledMyFather his father's killer]], and the nice doctor will off your target himself.

* ''VisualNovel/DanganronpaTriggerHappyHavoc'': Attempted by the mastermind when Naegi develops a severe fever during Chapter 5, in an attempt to [[spoiler:kill someone and frame Kyoko, so they would have grounds to execute her]]. Luckily, [[BigDamnHeroes Kyoko foils the attempt]].
* It's revealed near the end of ''VideoGame/SilentHill2'' that James Sunderland killed [[spoiler: his wife, Mary via VorpalPillow. Due to Mary having an unnamed illness that had given her only a short time to live, she constantly lashed out at James while simultaneously begging him to not leave her, causing his negative feelings towards her to increase until he couldn't take it anymore.]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Morally inverted in ''Webcomic/DumbingOfAge'' when all-around HateSink [[spoiler:Blaine]] ends up in the hospital and gets shot by a crooked cop (who even explains that it'll be passed off as a suicide on [[spoiler:Blaine's]] part).

* ''Series/TheATeam'', "[[Recap/TheATeamS3E14CupAJoe Cup 'A Joe]]": Slater's men get Dutton to sign over the restaurant by threatening his wife and daughter and then plan to shoot him. Unfortunately for them, it turns out that they weren't talking to Joe Dutton but to Hannibal Smith.
%%* Happens in ''Series/{{Fringe}}'', episode 1x09
* ''Series/NewTricks'' had a villain from the previous season attempt to smother Jack Halford while he was in hospital recovering from a car accident.
* ''Series/LawAndOrder'' had this done to a child to make his mother keep quiet.
%%* Done in the first season finale of ''Series/TwinPeaks''.

* In an episode of ''Series/FamilyMatters'', Carl ends up in a hospital after being hit with a bullet during a shootout. A shooter, seeking revenge for his relative who Carl recently arrested, dresses up as a doctor and sneaks into the hospital room intent on killing Carl. [[spoiler: Steve, who at the time was also a patient and roommates with Carl, sneaks up behind the shooter and knocks him out with the metal squatting pan.]]
* An unusual humorous (if morbidly so) example occurs in ''Series/RescueMe'', in which a character suffering from kidney cancer awakens from a musical DreamSequence gone awry to find a well-meaning uncle attempting to smother him as an act of mercy because the doctors say he's taken a turn for the worse.
* ''Series/{{Leverage}}'', "The Beantown Bailout Job." [[spoiler: The bank manager]] behind the whole scam is on his way to the hospital to kill the only witness, who's lying in a coma... only to find the Massachusetts State Police waiting for him when he arrives.
* ''Series/TheXFiles''. After A.D. Skinner is shot Scully thinks this has happened to him when she finds his room empty and the police guards missing. It turns out he's being transferred to another hospital. She decides to accompany Skinner there in the ambulance, which is just as well as that's where the attempted murder occurs.
** And Skinner himself attempts to do this to the comatose Mulder in "Deadalive", thinking he is saving Scully's unborn child by doing so. It fails but ends up saving Mulder from a life of alien replication.
* ''Series/{{Castle}}''. In the first season, an assassin disguised as a nurse administers a lethal poison to the IV of a patient in witness protection. [[spoiler:Moments later, Castle and Beckett appear on-scene to arrest her. She smirks, telling them they're too late, and Castle appears to panic - only to reveal that the IV wasn't connected. "It's almost like we knew you were coming."]]
* In ''Series/ThePretender'' Miss Parker is sent to kill [[spoiler: Sydney's twin Jacob]], who was in a persistent vegetative state after [[spoiler:a car [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident accident]] caused by him wanting to leave The Centre. She [[FakingTheDead faked his murder]] with Sydney's help.]] In a later episode [[spoiler:this was found out, which lead to sweepers were sent in to [[KilledOffForReal do the job properly]]. They did not arrive on time.]]
* After being shot, ''Series/TheMentalist'''s Bosco nearly died this way. Luckily, his ActionGirl friend/co-worker/one true love, Teresa Lisbon manages to stop the shooter. [[spoiler: Poor Bosco dies anyway, but at least he and Lisbon get to have their AnguishedDeclarationOfLove before he does.]]
* In ''Series/BoardwalkEmpire'', one of the gangsters attacked in the first episode turns out not to have been killed by Jimmy and Al and turns up badly wounded. Since Nucky is afraid he will start talking and name names, he arranges things so that his brother will smother the guy with a pillow while pretending to question him. This plan is interrupted by the FBI, but things don't go better for the patient after that, as the KnightTemplar Agent Van Allen tortures him for information via OpenHeartDentistry, and he dies after giving up information.
* In episode 6 of ''Series/TheShadowLine'', this almost happens to [[spoiler:Gatehouse]] when he's in hospital after [[spoiler:being shot by Glickman]]. However, he's able to overpower and kill his assassin and escape.

* ''Series/{{Luther}}'': Sociopathic killer Alice Morgan disguises herself as a doctor, hits the fire alarm, and then tells the police officer guarding the man she intends to kill that there's some violent patients on the floor below who are hindering the evacuation. She then walks into the room and smothers her target with her bare hands.
* On ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'', George is in the hospital and keeps going on about how he doesn't want to suffer and just be sick forever so he asks Jerry, that if it comes to that, to put him out of his misery. Jerry says "Like this?", grabs a pillow, and starts suffocating him while he struggles.
* In the 2010 TV version of ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'' starring Creator/PatrickStewart, which moves the location to a 20th-century dictatorship, the three witches are disguised as hospital nurses. They're first seen "taking care" of the wounded soldier who's just brought news of Macbeth's victory to the king.

* Lampshaded in ''Series/GameOfThrones'' when a savvy Tyrion wakes up after nearly being killed in a BodyguardBetrayal to find Maester Pycelle (whom he had thrown into the black cells in an earlier episode) smirking down at him.
-->'''Tyrion:''' ''POD!'' (Tyrion's loyal squire rushes in) Find Bronn, or [[TheSpymaster Varys]]. Tell them I am here with Maester Pycelle. Tell them, I am ''very'' much alive.
* In ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', a killer intending to finish off Quark visits him with a bunch of flowers, which he shoves against the Bajoran deputy's chest, then removes to reveal he's stabbed the man with a knife. He then uses a VorpalPillow to finish him off, only to be interrupted by Quark's brother who starts screaming; Odo rushes in with more deputies and arrests the killer.
-->'''Odo:''' It's over Rom, you're a hero! You saved your brother's life.
-->''(Rom starts to smile, then realises he's going to lose the bar if Quark lives and starts screaming again. On his not-so-deathbed, Quark smiles.)''
* On ''Series/TheBorgias,'' Cardinal Sforza is enlisted by his family to do this to Rodrigo after the latter survives being poisoned, but he's interrupted before he gets the chance [[spoiler: and so far he's ended up siding with the Borgias after all]]

* [[spoiler: Uther]] in ''{{Series/Merlin 2008}}''. [[spoiler: Morgana]], having [[FaceHeelTurn turned evil]], gave him a locket that caused Merlin's healing magic to actually kill him instead.

* ''Series/{{NCIS}}'': [[spoiler:[[BitchInSheepsClothing McCallister]]]] attempts this on [[DaChief Vance]], who kills him first with the knife that Gibbs had slipped him.
* In a similar example on ''Series/NCISLosAngeles'', Granger is in the hospital after being stabbed in the back when an assassin comes in and injects poison into his IV. Fortunately, Hetty had expected something like this and left him a gun, which he uses to shoot the assassin before [[PullTheIV pulling the IV out of his arm]] so that the poison can't hurt him.

* ''Series/StarTrekVoyager''
** An overt version is committed in "State of Flux". There's an unconscious Kazon in Voyager's sickbay who may know the identity of TheMole sending information to the Kazon-Nistrim. Their leader comes on board to see his injured man. Janeway is having a quiet word with the Doctor, asking him to delay any demand for the man to be removed, when the Kazon leader jabs him with a needle-ring containing a fatal nerve toxin. All Janeway can do is throw them off her ship.
** In "Fury", Kes has turned evil and traveled back in time to when her younger self was the nurse on Voyager. This proves handy when Tuvok starts to [[MySignificanceSenseIsTingling sense that something is wrong]]. After Tuvok is brought to Sickbay after collapsing, Kes dials up the setting on his cortical stimulator, sending him into shock. He does recover, but not soon enough to interfere in events.
** And another one, overt to the point of parody, in "Author, Author." In the Doctor's holo-novel, he's tending to a critically-injured crewman when Captain "Jenkins" comes in with a bridge officer who has a concussion. The Captain demands priority treatment for her officer, and ''[[TriageTyrant shoots]]'' the poor RedShirt when the Doctor protests.
* ''Series/StarTrekPicard'':
** In "Stardust City Rag", Seven of Nine [[spoiler:euthanizes Icheb]] at his request, who's slowly dying from being mutilated for his Borg implants on an operating table.
** Later in the same episode, [[spoiler:Bruce Maddox]] is rescued from criminals, but he's suffering from severe internal injuries, so he's taken to the ''La Sirena'''s sickbay. His former lover [[spoiler:Jurati is revealed to be TheMole when she turns off his bio-bed]] and watches in horror as he dies of internal hemorrhaging.
* On ''Series/{{Tyrant}}'', [[spoiler:Barry]] reluctantly kills [[spoiler:Sheikh Rashid, who's been beaten into a coma by Jamal]], as he lays in a hospital bed because he can see no other way to keep the diplomatic talks going when one of the negotiating parties is represented by a man in a coma.
* ''Series/TheAvengers1960s'': In "The £50,000 Breakfast", a killer disguised as a doctor slips into the hospital room of a smuggler in a coma, dismisses the policeman guarding him, and administers a lethal injection.
* ''Series/PennyDreadful'': Brona's affliction is pretty advanced tuberculosis, for which she is bedridden and in constant pain. At Ethan's request, Victor comes to assist in making her final moments more comfortable... [[spoiler:Except that Victor also requires a beautiful female corpse to create a bride for his creature, necessitating VorpalPillow for a quick, easy, and bloodless technique.]]
* ''Series/BreakingBad:'' The Cousins, Leonel and Marco Salamanca, ambush Hank in a parking lot, having been sent there by Gus Fring to avenge the death of Tuco. Hank is tipped off by Gus, and thus, Marco is killed when Hank shoots him in the head, while Leonel survives, although his legs have to be amputated. To keep Leonel from talking, Gus personally brings fried chicken for every cop at the hospital, which serves to distract the cops while Mike sneaks up to Leonel's room and administers a lethal injection. ''Series/BetterCallSaul'' establishes that Mike had also killed Leonel as retaliation since Hector had used the Cousins to threaten Mike's granddaughter years before.
* ''Series/PersonOfInterest'': [[spoiler:when Simmons murders Carter, Reese goes on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge - but the rest of Team Machine, knowing Carter would want Simmons brought to justice, stop him, and Carter's partner Fusco gets to beat Simmons into submission and arrest him properly. However, AffablyEvil mob boss Elias was also fond of Carter and believed he owed her a debt for saving his life... so Elias visits Simmons in hospital, tells him how much he sucks, and then has Scarface garrote Simmons to death.]]
* ''Series/MurdochMysteries'': In "Buffalo Shuffle", the first VictimOfTheWeek is a cancer patient who is killed with an overdose of heroin as he lies in his hospital bed.
* ''Series/Daredevil2015'':
** In season 1, Christian Blake, a corrupt NYPD detective on Wilson Fisk's payroll, inadvertently gives information on Fisk's operation to Matt Murdock (Matt had attacked Blake, broken his right arm, and subsequently learned the addresses of the Russians' hideouts when they were texted to Blake's phone). Subsequently, while Blake and his partner/best friend Carl Hoffman are outside a building where Matt is holed up with Vladimir, a crooked ESU sniper working for Fisk opens fire on the cops, wounding Blake and killing two uniformed cops. Blake is left in a coma as a result of his injuries. When Blake regains consciousness, Fisk panics since Blake is probably bitter enough about being shot that he'll rat Fisk out. Fisk thus approaches Hoffman and asks him to kill Blake. Hoffman is reluctant to do the job since he and Blake have known each other for thirty-five years until Fisk threatens his life. Subsequently, Hoffman goes to the hospital, carrying a syringe inside a meatball sandwich (so that it won't be noticed when Sgt. Brett Mahoney inspects it at the door). Once inside the room, he injects the syringe into Blake's IV line. Matt shows up and knocks Hoffman out, but is unable to get anything out of Blake before he dies. The act ultimately proves to be the start of Fisk's downfall as Hoffman, bitter over having to do the deed, promptly goes into hiding and is stashed away by Leland Owlsley as insurance. Matt eventually locates Hoffman, who rats on Fisk to the FBI.
** At the start of season 2, Frank Castle goes to the hospital to kill Grotto, who escaped Frank's earlier massacre of the Kitchen Irish. However, Grotto escapes with Karen Page's help as Frank fires on them with a shotgun, then from the roof with a sniper rifle. He doesn't stay away long as Frank captures him and kills him in front of Matt just days later.

* ''Series/TheProfessionals''. In "The Purging of [=CI5=]", Cowley is caught in a bomb explosion and rushed to hospital in a critical state. The assassin dons a LabcoatOfScienceAndMedicine, [[BavarianFireDrill bluffs his way past the guard at the door]], and tries to inject the patient with a lethal drug only to have his arm grabbed by Cowley who was acting as TheBait to lure him out. [[FakeKillScare Turns out Cowley's injuries weren't serious]] as he was able to get out of the building before it blew up.

* ''Series/FatherBrown'': In "The Cat of Mastigatus" the would-be killer, on discovering the victim was still alive, sneaks into her hospital room, and attempts to finish the job with a VorpalPillow.
* ''Series/{{Dexter}}'': The titular SerialKillerKiller's first victim was a hospital nurse who was "{{Mercy Kill}}ing" patients, whether or not those patients were actually dying in the first place.
* ''Series/{{Elementary}}'': The killer in one episode turns out to be [[spoiler:a hospital janitor with a [[WorthlessForeignDegree medical degree that's not recognized in the USA]]]], who was {{Mercy Kill}}ing terminally ill patients with their full consent. [[spoiler:The exception is a victim whose doctor lied that she was terminally ill to cover up their own malpractice.]]
* ''Series/{{Ezel}}'':
** Serdar kills Eyşan's cancer-ridden aunt (by extension, his sister-in-law) by administering a morphine overdose, fearing what she might tell her friend Meliha the following day.
** Cengiz tries using a VorpalPillow [[spoiler:to finish Eyşan for good while she lies unconscious in the hospital]]. However, he hesitates too long and is forced to leave before Ezel catches him.
* ''Series/MidsomerMurders'': In "Drawing Death," the first VictimOfTheWeek is a woman in a coma. The murderer enters her room and shuts off her life support. When the victim wakens and sits up, the murderer finishes the job by shoving a comic book down her throat: choking her to death.
* ''Series/{{CSINY}}'':
** Invoked for revenge in "Here's to You, Mrs. Azrael."
** The killer in "Unspoken" considers this with a hospitalized Lindsay, but ultimately doesn't go through with it.

* In ''Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureVentoAureo,'' when Bruno Bucciarati was a child, his father was shot 7 times by two criminals when he saw them making a drug deal, but he survived and was taken to the hospital. When the men came back to finish the job, Bruno was waiting under his father's hospital bed and killed both of them.

* ''ComicBook/JudgeDredd'': Notorious serial killer PJ Maybe attempts to assassinate a hospitalized Chief Judge Sinfield by using his SexBot companion Inga to infiltrate the hospital room disguised as Judge Hershey. Bonus points in that Sinfield was hospitalized in the first place for narrowly surviving a previous attempt on his life. This one becomes a failure as well when Judge Dredd bumps into the robot and quickly realizes that it's not the real Hershey.

* ''Fanfic/OneSmallKindness'':
** Attempted upon Itachi by Kabuto, while he was recovering from his eye surgery.
** Possibly [[TearJerker Mikoto]], though so subtly that one might miss it until a second read-through. Mikoto was injured severely and comatose before she died, suddenly and without warning. The cause of death is apparently mundane, but she was a known political opponent (some would even say, rival) of Shimura Danzou. And, as mentioned, Kabuto was at the hospital...

* ''Fanfic/IfThemsTheRules'', Buck, another kid at the orphanage, attempts to smother Tom Riddle when the latter was severely ill from a cold.
* In ''Fanfic/MassEffectHumanRevolution'', the PlotTriggeringDeath of [[spoiler:Shepard]] takes the form of an assassin slaying her as she is laid up in hospital.

* In ''Film/TheRocketeer'', Lothar does this to one of the mobsters who hid the jetpack, to prevent them from talking to the FBI.
%%* ''Film/TheOmen1976''.
* Barely thwarted in both the first and second ''[[Film/TheGodfather Godfather]]'' films. In the first Michael Corleone arrives to find the police guards have been 'reassigned'. He gets a nurse to move his father's bed to another room, then bluffs the killers by standing outside with Corleone's baker (who came to give flowers to Don Vito) and sliding a hand inside his coat when the carload of killers turn up. The killers assume the guards are still in place and drive off. In the second film the hitman (this time working for Michael Corleone), having [[DeliciousDistraction distracted the nurses with a cake]], is about to press a [[VorpalPillow pillow over the patient's face]] when a squad of Cuban soldiers, who have been tipped off about the hit, march in and shoot him.
** Discussed in Part III when Michael is hospitalized following a diabetic stroke. Vincent Mancini, Connie Corleone, and Al Neri decide to strike against Joey Zasa because they know he would not let Michael survive a hospital stay.
* The climax of the film ''Film/USMarshals'' sees the corrupt Royce attempt to finish off Sheridan, only to be stopped by Gerard, who has figured out Royce's duplicity.
* Elle Driver disguises herself as a nurse and attempts to do this to The Bride in the first volume of ''Film/KillBill''. Fortunately, Bill calls at the last minute and cancels the hit. As he puts it, [[EvenEvilHasStandards sneaking around and killing people in their sleep doesn't mesh with their warrior ethic]].
* Bethany from ''Film/{{Dogma}}'' saves "existence" by doing this.
** ...to [[spoiler:''God'']]
* Similar thing happens in ''Film/HardBoiled'', only that the victim is not unconscious but rather, in a plaster cast from tip to toe, which only makes the murder ([[{{Squick}} with a scalpel]]) crueler.

* ''Film/{{Telefon}}''. A priest who's been [[ManchurianAgent brainwashed to commit sabotage]] is captured alive. A female KGB agent purchases a nurses' uniform from an on-site outfitters shop, while Creator/CharlesBronson (posing as a doctor) rings up the duty nurse and tells her that another nurse will be replacing her, as she's to report somewhere else. The false nurse then injects air into the IV tube of the patient.
* In Creator/PeterJackson's ''Film/TheLordOfTheRingsTheTwoTowers'', it's hinted that Gríma did this to Théodred.
* Very nearly happens in ''Film/{{Orphan}}''.

* In ''Film/Super8'', done by [[spoiler:Nelec]] to [[spoiler: Woodward]].

* ''Film/TheTransporter''. The villain visits one of his mooks in hospital and after verifying he didn't talk to the police, wipes his mouth in apparent concern, then shoves the cloth down the man's throat while squeezing his IV bag. He then attaches the heart rate monitor to the man sleeping in the next bed over, so the alarm won't continue sounding.
* In ''Film/CarlitosWay'' the odious Dave Kleinfeld is afraid of becoming a victim of this after an assassination attempt, so keeps a gun by his bedside. Unfortunately for him, Carlito has taken the precaution of [[ItWorksBetterWithBullets emptying the gun]]. So when Vinnie Taglialucci enters disguised as a police officer to avenge Kleinfeld's murder of his father and brother, well, [[BoomHeadshot adios, counselor.]]
* In both versions of ''Film/TheWickedLady'', VillainProtagonist Barbara slowly poisons someone who knows too much about her double life as a highway(wo)man but has promised to keep her secret, thinking she can be redeemed. Soon he's bedridden, and he and everyone else thinks she's taking care of him as he suffers from an unknown ailment. When he realizes what she's doing to him and tries to cry out to others, she is forced to use the VorpalPillow technique to silence him for good.
* In ''Film/Unknown2011'', an assassin slips into the hospital and tries to kill the hero with a poisonous infusion when the latter comes out of MRI. Of course, [[PlotArmor he fails]].
* ''Film/{{Timecop}}'': [[spoiler:The protagonist's partner]] is recruited by the bad guys as TheMole, but becomes a loose end after they alter history to secure their rise to power. When the hero goes back in time where he left her in a hospital, he finds out that she's already been murdered by an assassin and a nurse who walks in assumes that he's responsible.
* ''Film/{{Killshot}}'': Blackbird, a Native American contract killer, remembers a hit on someone who was staying in the hospital. Unfortunately, he brought his younger brother along, who, when confronted by a nurse, let her live when she saw them. She immediately sounds the alarm and gets Blackbird's brother killed.
* In the 2010 film of ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'' starring Creator/PatrickStewart, after the line "Get him surgeons!" the nurses treating the wounded soldier inject him with a lethal poison instead, revealing themselves to be TheWeirdSisters.
* ''Film/ScannersIIITheTakeover'': One of Helena's assassins, disguised as a [[HospitalHottie hot nurse]], tries to kill Alex through lethal injection before she's interrupted by a doctor.
* In ''Film/Joker2019'', Arthur Fleck kills his mother Penny while she is laying in the hospital bed hooked up to machines due to heart failure, by [[VorpalPillow smothering her with a pillow]].
* In ''Film/ThePublicEnemy'', this is implied to happen when Tom winds up in the hospital and some rival gangsters decide to pay him a visit. He is delivered home dead.

* ''Film/DeathTrain'': General Benin orders the scientist who constructed the bombs for him (who is already dying in the hospital from radiation poisoning because of the faulty equipment Benin had provided him) to be killed to keep him from talking. Whitlock stops the assassin in time but accidentally injects him with the poison.

* Creator/DeanKoontz's ''The Door to December'' features a hitman sitting in his car, preparing to sneak into a hospital in the middle of the night to whack a certain patient. The next time we see him, [[spoiler: he's still sitting in his car -- with his neck crushed by an unknown assailant.]]
* Happens very early in ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' to Bran Stark after he witnessed TwinCest between the queen and her brother Jaime Lannister. [[spoiler:{{Subverted}} when it turns out Joffrey arranged it as a MercyKill. He thought it was; nobody else did, and the act triggers a war between the Starks and the Lannisters.]]

* In ''[[Literature/AfricanImmortals My Soul to Keep]]'', David kills an old, dying woman. She was his daughter, and he wanted to see her one last time, but then killed her to keep her from telling anyone that he's still young (because he's immortal). Big mistake... David's tendency to assume that MurderIsTheBestSolution will get him in lots of trouble in this book.

* Happens to [[spoiler:Chien]] in ''[[Literature/TheBraidedPath The Skein of Lament]]''.
* In ''The Remittance Kid'' by Creator/JTEdson, one of the anarchists sneaks into a hospital disguised as a priest and uses a pillow to smother a wounded accomplice before he can talk to the police.

* In ''Literature/MakingMoney'' Moist briefly thinks Vetinari did this to the old and sick Mrs. Lavish to allow Moist to take control of the bank. Vetinari [[TranquilFury does not take the accusation well.]]

* [[MeaningfulName Mary Gardner]], the DiscOneFinalBoss of ''[[Literature/IAmNotASerialKiller The Devil's Only Friend]]'' is an angel of death serial killer, using her job as a nurse to hide her kills. She takes it one step farther than the usual-[[WouldHurtAChild she's a pediatric nurse.]] She's an unusual case in that her shtick both covers her ass and makes her more vulnerable. She can pass on any illness she gets, making a hospital a great place to inconspicuously kill, but also is possessed of an incredibly weak immune system, so her "work" makes her sick all the time.
* Broderick Bode in ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix''. His friends sent him flowers. One of them was actually Devil's Snare.
* In ''Literature/{{Trainspotting}}'', Alan Venters rapes a girl and knowingly infects her with HIV, which she then unknowingly passes to her boyfriend. The boyfriend conceals his knowledge and initiates a fake friendship with Venters as he is dying in hospital, visiting him frequently. He then creates a set of fake photographs which appear to show the horrific rape and murder of Venters's son (the only being besides himself that he cares about) and shows these to Venters before [[VorpalPillow smothering him with a pillow]], filling the last moments of Venters' life with anguish.
* In ''[[Literature/TheMillenniumTrilogy The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest]]'', TheConspiracy sends a guy to kill [[spoiler:Zalachenko]], who's recuperating in a hospital, as his StupidEvil tendencies have made a horrible mess for them to clean up and has threatened to expose the entire conspiracy.

* ''Anime/DigimonUniverseApplimonsters'': The backstory features the evil AI Leviathan attempting to murder his creator Den'emon Shinkai in ways that would MakeItLookLikeAnAccident. Leviathan ultimately got Den'emon when he fell ill and had to be hospitalized; Leviathan tampered with the machinery, killing Den'emon.

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* The ''Webcomic/AxisPowersHetalia'' fanfic [[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/8309403/16/Iron-Weakened-by-Rust Iron Weakened By Rust]] has [[spoiler: Norway]] attempting to do this to [[spoiler:Estonia]] after the latter [[spoiler:[[MisterSeahorse gives birth to a stillborn child.]] ]] Thankfully, he's stopped in time.

[[HeKnowsTooMuch Someone is too close to finding out the]] ''[[HeKnowsTooMuch truth]]''. Or perhaps he or she knows too much [[ForYourOwnGood for their own good]]. For whatever reason (possibly an earlier not-quite-successful murder attempt), this person has been seriously injured or gotten ill and is now lying defenseless in a hospital bed. An assailant slips behind the hospital staff and quietly sneaks into the hospital room with intent on killing the patient. Sometimes they succeed. Sometimes they [[BigDamnHeroes don't]].

* ''Film/DeathTrain'': General Benin orders the scientist who constructed the bombs for him (who is already dying in the hospital from radiation poisoning because of the faulty equipment Benin had provided him) to be killed to keep him from talking. Whitlock stops the assassin in time, but accidentally injects him with the poison.

* ''Series/StarTrekPicard''. In "Stardust City Rag", [[spoiler:Bruce Maddox]] is rescued from criminals, but he's suffering from severe internal injuries, so he's taken to the ship's sickbay. His former lover [[spoiler:Jurati is revealed to be TheMole when she turns off his bio-bed]] and watches in horror as he dies of internal hemorrhaging.